Long train trips to schools shortened

XI'AN: Abudu Rezike, 17, a high school student from Kashi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said the new train journey from his hometown to his school in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province, was now less tiring.

"Thanks to the special train for students, the whole trip from Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital city to Guangzhou took 62 hours, some 10 hours less than before. We did not feel as tired as on the trip last year," Rezike was quoted by South Metropolis Daily as saying. He arrived in the provincial capital Guangzhou on Sunday.

The Urumqi railway bureau said some 8,000 Xinjiang students had taken the five special direct trains from Aug 26 to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.