BEIJING/SHIJIAZHUANG, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing-Xiong'an intercity railway opened to traffic on Sunday, connecting the Chinese capital with the country's "city of the future" -- the Xiong'an New Area.

Located about 100 km southwest of Beijing, the Xiong'an New Area -- spanning the Rongcheng, Anxin, and Xiongxian counties and some adjacent areas -- aims to become a new engine for the modern economic system and to promote regional coordinated development.

The following are highlights of the construction and operation of the intercity railroad:

-- Travel time from Beijing West Railway Station to the Xiong'an New Area was cut from one and a half hours to about 50 minutes. It takes only 19 minutes to travel from Beijing Daxing International Airport to Xiong'an.

Of the 91-km newly built section of the railway, the part between Daxing airport and Xiong'an went into operation on Sunday, with a designed speed of 350 km per hour. The stretch between Beijing West Railway Station and Daxing airport opened in September 2019.

Travel time will be further reduced to 36 minutes after the existing section is upgraded.

-- There is an 847.25-meter-long fully enclosed noise barrier built to minimize noise for residential areas along the railway.

The upcoming intercity line will have trains that run as fast as 350 km per hour, and the noise will have an impact on the surrounding environment, said China Railway Shanghai bureau project chief engineer Zhang Tengfei.

This is the first time that a fully enclosed noise barrier of this type has been implemented in high-speed rail construction, said Zhang.

-- Each steel bar used on site is labeled for quality tracing to guarantee the high precision requirement of steel-bar binding.

The most advanced intelligent steel-bar processing equipment in China has been used, reducing labor intensity by 30 percent, enhancing the production efficiency by 1.3 times, and guaranteeing a product pass rate of 100 percent.

-- Located near Baiyangdian Lake, Xiong'an Railway Station has a construction area of 475,200 square meters, the size of 66 soccer fields, and is designed to appear like dew on a lotus leaf.

The station's oval roof is a photovoltaic power generation system, echoing the green drive to develop the Xiong'an New Area.

Generating an annual average of 5.8 million kWh of power, the system helps cut carbon dioxide emissions by 4,500 tonnes every year, equivalent to planting 120,000 hectares of trees, according to Wu Yadong, chief engineer of the station project from China Railway Construction Engineering Group.

A 15-meter-wide sunlight belt improves the daylight in the waiting hall, said Wu.

Wu added the construction of the station has made use of 5G technology, edge computing, high-precision positioning, high-definition video communication and other high-tech means to improve efficiency.