ZHENGZHOU - A high-speed railway linking Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan province with Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu province opened Saturday.

The 360-km line connects high-speed railway in the west with two major north-south lines, helping cut travel time between the west and east.

The travel time between Xi'an and Shanghai is cut to six hours from nearly 11 hours.

The line has nine stations and trains run at a speed of up to 300 km per hour in the initial period.

Construction of the line started in December 2012 and test operation started in April 2016.

With the operation of the new line, China's high-speed railway lines have exceeded 20,000 km in total length, the world's longest.