Hong Kong opened its first bullet train link Saturday, which connects the territory with mainland China.

The 26-kilometer line is the latest section to China's 25,000-kilometer high-speed rail network called the Express Rail Link and cost over $10.7 billion to build, according to CNN and Reuters.

The new high-speed railway will travel at 200 kph (or 120 mph) to 44 destinations in the mainland and is expected to see an estimated 70 to 82 trains pass through Hong Kong's new West Kowloon station daily.

BBC News reports that government officials say the rail link will boost businesses in Hong Kong, while critics say allowing Chinese authorities to operate on the trains violates Hong Kong's freedoms.

This marks the first time Chinese criminal law will be enforced in Hong Kong territory, according to the news site.

Ma Xingrui, governor of Guangdong Province, front row left, and Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, front row second left, stand next to a Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) Vibrant Express train bound for Guangzhou Nan Station waits in the Mainland Port Area at West Kowloon Station, which houses the terminal for the XRL in Hong Kong on Sept. 22, 2018.

Ma Xingrui, governor of the Guangdong Province of China, and Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, were present for the opening ceremony Saturday.

The train will open to the public Sunday.

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More: Hello Kitty bullet train ferries fans in Japan </s> A high-speed rail link has been launched in Hong Kong, connecting the territory with mainland China.

The Express Rail Link connects Hong Kong to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 40 minutes - less than half the time taken by older trains.

Chinese authorities will be able to operate at a joint checkpoint at the station, and on the trains.

This is controversial as it marks the first time Chinese criminal law will be enforced in Hong Kong territory.

Critics say this violates Hong Kong's freedoms and mini-constitution.

The rail link was launched at a ceremony on Saturday, with one local lawmaker praising the first bullet train journey to Guangzhou South as "very quiet, like I was on a plane".

Government officials say the rail link will boost businesses in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

The rail link will open to the public on Sunday - and also boost train connections with the rest of mainland China, including the capital Beijing.

However, pro-democracy legislators boycotted the opening ceremony, and staged a protest outside the station, saying the rail link undermines Hong Kong's independent legal system.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997, under an agreement that the territory would enjoy "a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs", for 50 years.

As a result, Hong Kong has its own laws, protections for certain rights and freedoms, and most mainland Chinese laws cannot be applied in the territory.

The new rail link will mark the first time Chinese officials can enforce Chinese law in Hong Kong, in parts of the station, and on trains.

China's top legislative body has said the arrangement does not undermine Hong Kong's autonomy, and its proponents argue it streamlines the immigration process.

However, legal experts from the Hong Kong Bar Association have criticised the arrangement, saying it contravenes Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

The rail link project has also been criticised for being delayed by three years and going over budget by close to $3bn (£2bn). </s> Hong Kong opened its first bullet train link Saturday, which connects the territory with mainland China.

The 26-kilometer line is the latest section to China's 25,000-kilometer high-speed rail network called the Express Rail Link and cost over $10.7 billion to build, according to CNN and Reuters.

The new high-speed railway will travel at 200 kph (or 120 mph) to 44 destinations in the mainland and is expected to see an estimated 70 to 82 trains pass through Hong Kong's new West Kowloon station daily.

BBC News reports that government officials say the rail link will boost businesses in Hong Kong, while critics say allowing Chinese authorities to operate on the trains violates Hong Kong's freedoms.

This marks the first time Chinese criminal law will be enforced in Hong Kong territory, according to the news site.

Ma Xingrui, governor of the Guangdong Province of China, and Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, were present for the opening ceremony Saturday.

The train will open to the public Sunday.

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More: Hello Kitty bullet train ferries fans in Japan </s> Another step in China’s project to bring Hong Kong into its bosom is complete and is set to connect the former European outposts of Hong Kong and Macau with the mainland.

The $15 billion, 55-kilometer (34-mile) bridge, which Xinhua says is the world’s longest sea link, will open for traffic at 9 am on Wednesday and is tipped to carry some 29,000 cars and trucks daily between Zhuhai on the mainland and Hong Kong, a former British colony.

The waters over which the bridge stands now was formerly patrolled by three navies, and the land borders were decades ago guarded by the People’s Liberation Army to mostly keep defectors from leaving.

The project is part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping plan to knit the so-called Greater Bay Area in southern Guangdong province into a high-tech megalopolis to rival California’s Silicon Valley.

It also envisions a better marriage between China’s industrial might and its one-party state and the liberal, capitalist bastions of Hong Kong and Macau, which have their own passports, currencies, trade policies, courts and civil rights.

The Greater Bay Area could serve as a new growth engine for the capital markets of Hong Kong, the casinos of Macau, formerly a Portuguese colony, and nearby Shenzhen, the economic powerhouse one of Xi’s predecessors, Deng Xiaoping, built on their doorstep almost four decades ago.

The area — with 67 million residents — would boast a trillion-dollar economy and eclipse Japan as the world’s fourth-largest exporter, according to HSBC Holdings Plc.

The bridge, inaugurated Tuesday by President Xi Jinping, “would enable Hong Kong and Macau to better leverage the favorable conditions and the unique advantage offered by the mainland” to help engage with the world, Vice Premier Han Zheng said at a function to mark the event in Zhuhai.

The sea bridge is the latest to link Hong Kong directly to the mainland. In September, the city plugged into China’s 15,500-mile high-speed rail network with a futuristic new terminus overlooking the Victoria Harbor. A train to Beijing from Hong Kong now would take nine hours and cost less than half the price of flight ticket.

About 4,00,000 metric tons of steel was used to build the bridge, or enough to build 55 Eiffel Towers, according to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority. Bringing the less developed part of Guangdong closer to Hong Kong, the link will help reduce travel time by road to Zhuhai to about 30 minutes, from three hours.

The bridge was built on one of the world’s busiest sea routes, where more than 4,000 vessels and 1,800 flights travel back and forth daily, carrying annually more than 20 million people and 1.2 billion tons of goods. The area is also known for strong typhoons each year and rare marine species including Chinese white dolphins. </s> HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong on Saturday opened a new high-speed rail link to inland China that will vastly decrease travel times but also raises concerns about Beijing's creeping influence over the semi-autonomous Chinese region.

Costing upward of $10 billion and taking more than eight years to build, the system aims to transport more than 80,000 passengers daily between the Asian financial center of 7 million people and the neighboring manufacturing hub of Guangdong province.

The train travels the 26 kilometers (16 miles) through Hong Kong to Shenzhen across the border in China in just 14 minutes, down from about 1 hour currently. The through-train to Guangdong's capital Guangzhou will take just over half an hour, about 90 minutes faster than current service.

Once across the border, passengers can link up with Chinese sprawling nationwide high-speed rail network serving more than 44 destinations, including Shanghai, Beijing and the western city of Xi'an.

Passengers will clear Chinese immigration at the line's newly built West Kowloon terminus, the source of major legal controversy when it was revealed that mainland Chinese law would apply within roughly one-quarter of the station's area.

Some opposition lawmakers argued the move would be a violation of the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution under which it retained its own legal system and civil liberties after reverting from British to Chinese rule in 1997. That guarantees Hong Kong the right to maintain rights such as freedom of speech and assembly — which are routinely violated on the mainland — until 2047. Legal matters related to defense, foreign affairs and national security fall under Beijing purview.

However, Beijing's tight control over the city's politics and a continuing crackdown on politicians calling for greater economy and democratic reforms have spurred worries about an erosion of Hong Kong's remaining autonomy.

The Hong Kong legislature's passage in June of the plan to allow Chinese law to apply at the railway terminus was a significant moment for the opposition, coming four years after mass street protests demanding reforms fizzled out amid Beijing's intransigence. Pro-democracy legislators have been expelled and charges brought against more than 100 protesters.

Supporters of the provision, including the territory's Beijing-backed Chief Executive Carrie Lam, defended it as promoting speed and convenience. </s> Hong Kong (AP) — Hong Kong on Saturday opened a new high-speed rail link to inland China that will vastly decrease travel times but also raises concerns about Beijing’s creeping influence over the semi-autonomous Chinese region.

Costing upward of $10 billion and taking more than eight years to build, the system aims to transport more than 80,000 passengers daily between the Asian financial center of 7 million people and the neighboring manufacturing hub of Guangdong province.

The train travels the 26 kilometers (16 miles) through Hong Kong to Shenzhen across the border in China in just 14 minutes, down from about 1 hour currently. The through-train to Guangdong’s capital Guangzhou will take just over half an hour, about 90 minutes faster than current service.

Once across the border, passengers can link up with Chinese sprawling nationwide high-speed rail network serving more than 44 destinations, including Shanghai, Beijing and the western city of Xi’an.

Passengers will clear Chinese immigration at the line’s newly built West Kowloon terminus, the source of major legal controversy when it was revealed that mainland Chinese law would apply within roughly one-quarter of the station’s area.

Some opposition lawmakers argued the move would be a violation of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution under which it retained its own legal system and civil liberties after reverting from British to Chinese rule in 1997. That guarantees Hong Kong the right to maintain rights such as freedom of speech and assembly — which are routinely violated on the mainland — until 2047. Legal matters related to defense, foreign affairs and national security fall under Beijing purview.

However, Beijing’s tight control over the city’s politics and a continuing crackdown on politicians calling for greater economy and democratic reforms have spurred worries about an erosion of Hong Kong’s remaining autonomy.

The Hong Kong legislature’s passage in June of the plan to allow Chinese law to apply at the railway terminus was a significant moment for the opposition, coming four years after mass street protests demanding reforms fizzled out amid Beijing’s intransigence. Pro-democracy legislators have been expelled and charges brought against more than 100 protesters.

Supporters of the provision, including the territory’s Beijing-backed Chief Executive Carrie Lam, defended it as promoting speed and convenience. </s> related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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Hong Kong's controversial bullet train got off to a smooth start on Sunday, as hundreds of passengers whistled north across the border at speeds of up to 200 kph (125 mph), deepening integration of the former British colony with mainland China.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's controversial bullet train got off to a smooth start on Sunday, as hundreds of passengers whistled north across the border at speeds of up to 200 kph (125 mph), deepening integration of the former British colony with mainland China.

While the US$11 billion rail project has raised fears for some over Beijing's encroachment on the Chinese-ruled city's cherished freedoms, passengers at the sleek harbourfront station were full of praise for a service that reaches mainland China in less than 20 minutes.

"Out of 10 points, I give it nine," said 10-year-old Ng Kwan-lap, who was travelling with his parents on the first train leaving for Shenzhen at 7 a.m.

"The train is great. It's very smooth when it hits speeds of 200 kilometres per hour."

Mainland Chinese immigration officers are stationed in one part of the modernist station that is subject to Chinese law, an unprecedented move that some critics say further erodes the city's autonomy.

The project is part of a broader effort by Beijing to

fuse the city into a vast hinterland of the Pearl River Delta including nine Chinese cities dubbed the Greater Bay Area.

Beijing wants the Greater Bay Area, home to some 68 million people with a combined GDP of US$1.5 trillion, to foster economic integration and better meld people, goods and sectors across the region.

Critics say the railway is a symbol of continuing Chinese assimilation of Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with guarantees of widespread autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including an independent legal system.

But at a ceremony on Saturday ahead of the public opening, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam praised the so-called "co-location" arrangement with Beijing which the government has said is necessary to streamline immigration.

Scores of excited passengers straddled a yellow strip across black tiles that highlighted the demarcation line between Hong Kong and mainland China, while others passed through turnstiles surrounded by red, orange and white balloons.

"I'm excited to experience the high-speed train, even more excited than when I take a plane," said a 71-year-old retiree surnamed Leung.

While there have been questions over whether Hong Kong residents would be able to access foreign social media, largely banned in mainland China, in zones subject to Chinese law, some passengers arriving in Shenzhen, on the mainland side, were able to bypass China's so-called Great Firewall.

The rail link provides direct access to China's massive 25,000-km national high-speed rail network and authorities on both sides have hailed it as a breakthrough that will bring economic benefits, including increased tourism.

"No matter what you think about the new line, high-speed rail is extremely convenient," said Feng Yan, assistant professor at the Communication University of China in Beijing who took the bullet train from Shenzhen to Hong Kong.

"Even if it takes some time for people to realise how convenient it is, sooner or later they will." </s> Hong Kong (CNN) The first ever bullet train from Hong Kong to China departed Sunday, as the city's controversial high-speed rail link opened to the public amid fears greater integration with the mainland could lead to ever more encroachment by Beijing in semi-autonomous Hong Kong's affairs.

Thousands of journalists, tourists and train enthusiasts queued for hours to become the first passengers to travel from West Kowloon Station -- located in central Hong Kong -- to the Chinese city of Guangzhou aboard the new $10 billion rail link.

The 26 kilometer (16 mile) railway links Hong Kong up to China's high-speed rail network, currently the world's largest, allowing passengers to travel from the city to Shanghai and Beijing.

The flags of Hong Kong (L) and China are seen hoisted outside the West Kowloon train station of the High Speed Rail Link to Guangzhou as sales counters were opened to the public for the first time in Hong Kong on September 10, 2018.

Under a joint checkpoint arrangement, the station is divided into Hong Kong and Chinese port areas, with the latter falling under the direct jurisdiction of Beijing. For this to work, the Hong Kong government leased part of the station -- including the immigration checkpoint, waiting lounge, and platforms -- to China for a token annual fee of around $128.

This means that although the West Kowloon station is located in central Hong Kong, part of it is governed by Chinese law and patrolled by mainland police. According to the agreement, the Chinese authorities will have the power to arrest individuals inside the station, or even transfer them to the mainland.

Read More </s> ZHUHAI, China — China on Tuesday opened the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge linking Hong Kong to the mainland, a feat of engineering carrying immense economic and political significance.

Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a ceremony in the city of Zhuhai to open the 55-kilometre-long bridge linking it to the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Digital fireworks exploded on a screen behind him as leaders of the three cities watched.

The $20 billion bridge took almost a decade to build while incurring major delays and cost overruns. It includes an undersea tunnel allowing ships to pass through the Pearl River delta, the heart of China’s crucial manufacturing sector.

The bridge forms a physical link between the mainland and Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub that was handed over from British to Chinese control in 1997 with the assurance it would maintain its own legal and economic system for 50 years.

That carries major political significance for Xi’s administration, which has rejected calls for political liberalization in Hong Kong, sparking fears Beijing will clamp down further on civil liberties before the end of the “one country, two systems” arrangement in 2047.

The bridge’s opening also comes a month after the inauguration of a new high-speed rail link from Hong Kong to mainland China that runs along a different, shorter route. That line has vastly decreased travel times but also raised concerns about Beijing’s growing influence because mainland Chinese law applies within part of the line’s Hong Kong terminus.

To Claudia Mo, a Hong Kong democratic politician, the bridge’s political significance outweighs its practical usefulness.

“It’s not exactly necessary, because Hong Kong is connected to mainland China in every way already, by land, by air, by sea,” Mo told The Associated Press.

“But they still need it as a political symbol or icon to remind Hong Kong people … that you are connected to the motherland, with this very grand bridge. It’s almost like an umbilical cord.”

Its opening will cut travel time across the delta from several hours to just 30 minutes, something China hopes will bind the region together as a major driver of future economic growth. Heavily regulated traffic using permits issued under a quota system will begin flowing on Wednesday.

In Zhuhai, however, sentiments revolved around economic growth and national pride.

Airline pilot Liu Gang said he’d been eagerly anticipating the opening of the bridge, calling it a symbol of the mainland’s increasingly close ties with Hong Kong and Macau.
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“It’ll bring us even closer together, make us more flexible, economically and in many other ways. We’re now one family,” Liu said Monday afternoon while strolling along a walkway and shooting photos of the structure.

 Luo Fengzhi, who works in real estate, cited the bridge as evidence of China’s growing economic and engineering prowess.

“For Chinese people, this makes them feel proud,” she said. “I hope that every patriotic Chinese person can come and see this great feat of engineering, and I welcome foreigners to come and see for themselves as well.”
The 26-kilometer-long (16 mi) Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link Hong Kong section opens for commercial operation.