The last of 39 tunnels on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line was connected on March 20. The breakthrough marks significant progress in overcoming difficult engineering problems on the rail line.

The Chaoyang Tunnel, with a length of 6,750 meters, is located in Chaoyang city, Liaoning province.

Although Chaoyang Tunnel is not the longest one on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line, it was among the toughest tunnels to build, according to Wang Zhipeng, the project director of the Chaoyang section of the rail line. He expressed his view that the successful connection of Chaoyang Tunnel marks great progress in the construction of the rail line.

The 698-kilometer Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line starts at Xinghuo Railway Station in Beijing and connects Chengde in Hebei province with Chaoyang and Fuxing in Liaoning province, before eventually reaching Shenyang.

The line began construction in July 2014, with a total investment of 124.5 billion yuan ($20.4 billion).

Upon completion, expected during 2019, the new line will shorten the current journey time of 6 hours to just 2.5 hours, as it can accommodate trains traveling speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour, and only 20 stations will be built along the new line.

The completion of the high-speed rail line will also greatly improve the transportation of goods in the region, as the Beijing-Shenyang line will connect to other main rail lines across China, such as to the Beijing-Harbin Rail Line, Beijing-Shanghai Rail Line and the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Rail Line.?Meanwhile, the current railway connecting Beijing to Shenyang has reached operational capacity.

The entrance of Chaoyang Tunnel on the Beijing-Shenyang High-Speed Rail Line. [Photo/Xinhua]

Construction workers celebrate the joining of the two ends of Chaoyang Tunnel on March 20. [Photo/Xinhua]