The line has been designed for 350km/h operation, although trains will initially run at a maximum speed of 300km/h. The opening of the new railway has cut the Hefei - Fuzhou journey time from more than eight hours to less than four hours and has also cut the Beijing - Fuzhou trip from more than 10 hours to less than eight hours.
Construction began on the Yuan 43.8bn ($US 7.1bn) project in May 2010 and 86% of the alignment is on bridges or in tunnels due to the mountainous topography of the region.
