Bullet trains on newly opened high-speed railway section offer ethnic minority language services

The bullet trains operating on a newly opened high-speed railway section in southwest China's mountainous Guizhou Province offer passenger services in multiple local ethnic minority languages, as the trains run through a slew of areas densely populated by ethnic minority groups.

The initial section of the 512-kilometer Guiyang-Nanning High-Speed Railway opened to traffic on Tuesday, after five years of construction in the mountainous terrains with complicated geological condition on the line.

The entire Guiyang-Nanning High-Speed Railway will run from Guiyang -- the capital city of southwest China's Guizhou Province -- to Nanning -- the capital city of neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The railway will be 512 kilometers in length, of which 482 kilometers is newly built. The travel time between the two cities will be cut from 10 hours to 2.5 hours upon completion of construction of the entire line.

The initial section of the railway opened on Tuesday running from Guiyang to Libo, a small town in Guizhou. After the opening of this section to railway traffic, a Fuxing model bullet train numbered D6171 left Guiyang for Libo.

For passengers from ethnic minority groups on trains running on the railway section, they can be provided with minority language passenger services.

The high-speed railway goes right through the compact areas inhabited by more than 30 ethnic minority groups, including the Yao, Buyi, Shui and Miao. In order to provide a nice and cozy riding experience for passengers of ethnic minority groups, the train attendants have received language training.

"We have invited ethnic minority teachers to offer special training to us, so that we can provide services in languages of ethnic Yao, Miao, Shui and Buyi to make travels more convenient for passengers," said Li Dan, high-speed passenger train conductor of Guiyang section of China Railway Chengdu Group Co., Ltd.

"This is the first time for me to take a high-speed train, and my family members don't have to worry about me, as the train attendants speak well the ethnic Yao language. I can talk to them easily. I really appreciate them for their services," said an elderly passenger from the Yao ethnic group.

The Guiyang-Nanning High-speed Railway is the first high-speed rail with a designed speed of 350 km/h for both Guizhou and Guangxi.