A high speed railway will begin running between the cities of Haikou and Sanya on southern China's island province of Hainan from November 2010.

Built at a cost of 20.2 billion yuan (about US$3 billion), the railway skirts along the eastern coast of the island for a length of 308 kilometers.

The railway's construction was funded by the Ministry of Railways and the Hainan Provincial Government.

There are fifteen stations on the line and five more will be added in time.

The electric railway line will mostly transport passengers while some capacity will be used for the transportation of goods.

The trip between the two cities will take only 90 minutes, half the time required to do the trip by road.

The maximum speed of the trains will be 250 km/h.

A railway line skirting the western side of the island and also linking the two cities will be built during the island province's 12th Five Year Plan from 2011 to 2015.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2010)