The Nanjing–Hangzhou Intercity Railway or Ninghang Intercity Railway is a high-speed rail

High-speed rail in China

High-speed rail in China refers to any commercial train service in the China with an average speed of or higher. By that measure, China has the world's longest high-speed rail network with about of routes in service as of June 2011 including of rail lines with top speeds of...

, passenger-dedicated line under construction in eastern China

East China

East China is a geographical and a loosely-defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China.Although an intangible and loosely defined concept, for administrative and governmental purposes, the region is defined by the government of the People's Republic of China to include...

 between Nanjing

Nanjing

' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

 (shorthand name Ning) and Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...

, the capitals of Jiangsu

Jiangsu

' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...

 and Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

 provinces, respectively. The line will be 249 km in length (including 147 km in Jiangsu and 102 km in Zhejiang) and have 11 stations: Nanjing Station, Jiangning District

Jiangning District

Jiangning District is an administrative district in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. The District has a population of 760,000 and an area of 1600 square kilometers. It includes southern and south-eastern suburbs of Nanjing....

, Lishui County

Lishui County

Lishui County is a county of Jiangsu, China. It is under the administration of Nanjing city. It's south of Nanjing and Jiangning and north of Gaochun...

, Liyang

Liyang

Liyang is a city in the southwest of Jiangsu province of Eastern China. It is administratively a county-level city under the administration of Changzhou City, and in 1999 had a population of 781,430.-Administration:...

, Yixing

Yixing

Yixing is a county-level city in Jiangsu province, in eastern China with a population of 1.3 million. It is well-known for its Yixing clay and the pottery -- especially the "zisha"-style teapots -- made from the clay...

 in Jiangsu and Changxing County

Changxing County

Changxing County is a county in the prefecture-level city of Huzhou, Zhejiang, China. Situated in the northern part of Zhejiang Province, it is close to the border of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui Province and serves as an important city in transportation.Changxing has since 2004 a Twin City ...

, Huzhou

Huzhou

Huzhou is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province of Eastern China. Lying south of the Lake Tai, it borders Jiaxing to the east, Hangzhou to the south, and the provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu to the west and north respectively.-Administration:...

 South, Deqing County, Yuhang District and Hangzhou East

Hangzhou East Railway Station

Hangzhou East Railway Station is a railway station of Hukun Railway located in Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.-History:The station opened in 1992.Since 2010, the station is the terminal of the Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway.- See also :...

 in Zhejiang. The line will be the first direct railway between Nanjing and Hangzhou and will reduce travel time by rail from nearly two hours to 50 minutes as direct trains will no longer need to travel through Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. Construction began in 2008 and the line is scheduled to open in 2012.