SHIJIAZHUANG, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Taihang Mountain Highway linking northern China's Hebei Province with Beijing starts operation Friday, according to Hebei provincial transport department.

The highway, with a total length of 650 km, connects Hebei's mountainous region with the capital and its neighboring provinces including Shanxi and Henan, benefiting a total of 7.4 million people living in the mountainous areas.

The highway will facilitate the poverty-stricken population in the Taihang mountain region as the local government is speeding up the development of red tourism, agricultural and sanatorium industries, said an official with Hebei's transport department.

The Taihang Mountain Highway has been built to be an important part of the integration of the transport network in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.