Construction: Work begins on railway linking Fujian Province and Shenzhen Economic Zone

Work has begun on a railway linking China's two economic zones, the Xiamen Economic Zone in Fujian Province and Shenzhen Economic Zone in Guangdong Province.

The 502.4 kilometres railway starts from Xiamen, and runs along the coast to Shenzhen, a booming city bordering Hong Kong.

Using trains travelling at 200 kph, the journey between the two cities will be slashed from eleven hours to about three.

The $5.6bn project will be completed in 2011.