China Unveils World's Fastest Bullet Train

China on Tuesday unveiled what it described as the world's fastest bullet train, which will join two of the country's industrial hubs travelling at an average speed of 350 km per hour.

The rail link between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the newest addition to China's fast-expanding high-speed rail network that is already the world's largest, covers the 200-km distance in only 45 minutes, reducing the travelling time from 78 minutes.

The home-built CRH380 bullet train has been recorded travelling at 420 km per hour, a world record. It will, however, go between the two cities at less than full tilt, at an average speed of 350 km per hour.

China's high-speed rail network now stretches over 7,431 km. The government plans to enlarge the network to over 16,000 km by 2020. China is investing an expected $300 billion on its high-speed rail network.

China has also started work on a 1,318-km high-speed rail line linking the country's two most important cities — Beijing and Shanghai. The $33-billion line will open in 2012, dipping the travel time between the capital and the financial centre in half, to just five hours.