With four stations — Chongzuo South, Ningming East, Longzhou, and Pingxiang East — on the 81.52-kilometer line, the Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR is witnessing 85.63 percent of its lines constructed as railway bridges and tunnels, Lu said.

Earlier, the Nanning-Chongzuo section of the Nanning-Pingxiang HSR started operations in December 2022.

Upon operation of the Chongzuo-Pingxiang section, Nanning and Pingxiang can be fully connected by high-speed railway and can be reached within one hour, said Yu Zuxin, deputy director of the Engineering Department of Guangxi Nanning-Chongzuo Railway Co.

Meanwhile, the western end of the line links Vietnam's Dong Dang-Hanoi Railway via the Hunan-Guangxi Railway and connects Hunan's Hengyang with the Friendship Pass in Pingxiang, providing travelers with travel ease to as far as Vientiane in Laos, Bangkok in Thailand, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Singapore, said Wu Huaiqiu, publicity chief of CREC4 Eighth Engineering Co Ltd.

Via the Nanning hub, the eastern end of Chongzuo-Pingxiang HSR joins the existing Nanning-Guangzhou HSR, Liuzhou-Nanning Intercity Railway, Nanning-Kunming HSR and the Guiyang-Nanning HSR which is still under construction.

All of these rail links will largely elevate the three-dimensional transport capacity of Guangxi in connecting the country's eastern and western regions with ASEAN markets, Wu said.