This photo shows Mt. Huashan, known as one of China's five sacred mountains, on Thursday, October 14, 2010. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/ Xu Leiying]
By Xu Leiying
About 150,000 tourists flocked to Huashan Mountain during the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, a 40-percent increase compared with a year earlier.
Many of them traveled via a new high-speed railway linking Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, and Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, which started operating early this year.
Compared with the average number of visitors arriving at Huashan on ordinary days, the number of visitors who arrived at the northern railway station during the National Day holiday increased by more than 100 percent, said Wu Li, a rail station employee.
Only high-speed trains carrying mostly tourists stop at the northern railway station which was built especially for the Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway, Wu added.
The station opened its doors on February 6, the same day the high-speed railway started operating. The 500-kilometer rail line is the first of its kind in central and western China, reducing travel time between the two cities from more than six hours to about 1.5 hours.
The number of regular trains in operation at the station has remained the same, while the addition of the high-speed ones has helped to boost the development of the local tourism industry.
The total number of tourists visiting Huashan Mountain from Henan Province has increased by 20 percent on an annual basis, said Zhang Bin, an official with the Huashan Mountain Tourism Administration.
During the first six months after its launch, nearly 2 million passengers took the Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed train. Because of the higher number of passengers, railway officials increased the daily number of high-speed trains to nine pairs from seven pairs.
Mt. Huashan, known as one of the country's five sacred mountains, is located in Huayin County in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province with the Wei River to the north and the Qinling Mountains to the south.
Tourists climb the "sky ladder"??a stairway up the steep cliff of Huashan Mountain in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province on Thursday, October 14, 2010. Visitors now can take a high-speed train to the foot of the mountain. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/ Xu Leiying]
