SHENYANG, Dec. 30 -- A high-speed railway linking the Chinese capital of Beijing with Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, is expected to kick off construction in the first half of 2014.

The 709-km railway will cut travel time between the two cities in half to 2.5 hours, said Tian Limin, a senior manager of the railway project at a conference organized by the Liaoning provincial government on Monday.

The railway is expected to be completed within 5 years with a total investment of 124.5 billion yuan (20.4 billion U.S. dollars). It is designed with a speed of 350 km per hour, said Tian.

After completion of the railway, 13 out of the 14 cities in the province will have high-speed rail connections, said Wang Zhanzhu, head of the Shenyang Railway Bureau.

China's railway network topped 100,000 km on Saturday, as several new high-speed rail links started operations ahead of one of the busiest travel seasons next month.

The newly opened links include the Xiamen-Shenzhen railway, the Xi'an-Baoji railway, the Chongqing-Lichuan railway, and others in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. They have a combined distance of 2,000 km.

Of the 100,000 km of track, more than 10,000 km are highspeed, said Hu Yadong, vice general manager of the China Railway Corporation.