A staff member helps a child put on a mask on a bullet train from Baotou, heading for Zhengzhou, Jan 20. [Photo/Hohhot Daily]

The city of Baotou, in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, launched bullet train services to Zhengzhou in Henan province and Taiyuan in Shanxi province on Jan 20, marking the first bullet train service launched in mid-western Inner Mongolia to run on routes that take more than six hours to complete.

The EMU trains on the Baotou-Zhengzhou line pass through cities such as Hohhot, Ulaanqab, Datong, Taiyuan, Changzhi, Jincheng, and Jiaozuo. The whole journey takes 8 hours and 35 minutes, which is about 9 hours shorter than the original, normal-speed train.

The launch of this EMU train has made the Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos urban agglomeration closer to the Central Plains urban agglomeration, bringing new development opportunities and a broad development space to the cities along the way. It also means that the people who live on the route have more travel options.

Also starting from Jan 20, following the implementation of the new national railway train operation timetable, Baotou has added a pair of trains to Hohhot.