Chongqing- As the final train departed from Chongqing Railway Station in Caiyuanba after 70 years of passenger services on June 19th, the new Zhengzhou-Chongqing Railway was prepared to go fully operational the very next day. Once the main fanfare on that first day had subsided, iChongqing reporter James Alexander made a day trip to Wushan County that would have been unthinkable only two days prior.
This 1,068 km high-speed marvel has reduced travel times between Chongqing and Beijing to under seven hours. Zhengzhou now takes half the time at only four hours, while the formerly distant corner of Wushan County can now be reached in as little as one hour and fifty-six minutes.
Having traveled to Wushan many times, a car journey to the county can take around six hours. While taking to the skies from Wushan Airport upon the mountaintops needs only an hour, the lack of regular departures and out-of-town location makes a day trip highly impractical.
In this vlog, James takes the new C6404 service from Chongqing, departing at 6:49 am, and arrives in Wushan only two hours and twelve minutes later after brief stops in Wanzhou and Fengjie Stations. During the journey, he reflects on past travel experiences in Wushan and recommends some top local destinations that have never been more accessible for tourists nationwide.
Once in Wushan, James sat beside the Yangtze River in a local hotel garden and filmed the attractive cityscape and surroundings through drone footage, enjoyed generous servings of local delicacies, made an attempt to reach Zhenshui Pagoda in the Wenfeng Scenic Area overlooking the city, and Wu Gorge, followed by a short rest at a local guesthouse before taking the G331 service back to Chongqing, a journey that only took one hour and fifty-six minutes.
The ability to visit these once far corners of Chongqing Municipality in just one day demonstrates how the Zhengzhou-Wanzhou High-Speed Rail Way can boost local tourism and the regional economy. In addition, the trains not only complete these journeys in record time but offer high levels of comfort through first and special class seating cabins, as iChongqing reporter James both experiences in this vlog.
Amazing features of the section between Wanzhou and Wushan include tunnels and bridges accounting for 98% of the track, which has earned the unique honor nationwide of being a subway-style high-speed railway.
Engineers made environmental protection a key feature of their design, as the train line runs alongside the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. They minimized ecological impacts by building the route far from the Yangtze River and constructing bridges across major tributaries without piers. At the same time, areas with construction residue have been carefully restored into orchards or arable land.
The route is expected to boost tourism in the Three Gorges, greatly enhance the accessibility of Yunyang, Fengjie, and Wushan counties on the national high-speed rail network, and achieve closer integration for the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the Yangtze River Economic Belt.