Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R, Front) attends the launching ceremony of Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway in Beijing, capital of China, June 30, 2011. The 1,318-kilometer railway, starting from Beijing and ending at Shanghai, opened to traffic on Thursday, cutting the single-way time between the two cities to under five hours.
The first commercial bullet train left Shanghai at 3 pm Thursday, beginning a one-day tale of two cities on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.
The 1,318-kilometer link, starting from Beijing and ending at Shanghai, chains together the country's prosperous Pan-Bohai and Yangtze River Delta economic zones, cutting the single-way time between the two cities to under five hours from two days half a century ago.