Work begins on major high-speed railway in western China

Work begins on major high-speed railway in western China

 XI'AN, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Construction work started Saturday on a major high-speed railway in China's western hinterland to promote local economic cooperation and development.

The 643-km-long railway line for passenger transport links Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province to Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The project will be completed in five years with an investment of more than 40 billion yuan (about 6.35 billion U.S. dollars). The travel time between the two cities will be shortened¹ to three hours from 12 hours currently², after the new railway is put into operation.

The line will have 127 km of tunnels to pass through the Qinling Mountains.

China aims to basically complete the construction of a high-speed railway network with a total operating length of more than 40,000 km by the end of 2015.

1 shortened   

v.弄短，缩短( shorten的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shortened the skirt by an inch. 她把裙子缩短了一英寸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vacations have lengthened and the work week has shortened. 假期延长，工作周就缩短了。 来自辞典例句

2 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。