Construction on the Wutai Mountain Railway Station concourse on the Xiong'an-Xinzhou High-speed Railway was recently completed, and the building is now undergoing quality checks. The whole line is expected to be ready for service by the end of March 2027.
The Xiong'an-Xinzhou High-speed Railway connects Xiong'an New Area, Hebei province, to Xinzhou, Shanxi province, with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour (a first for Shanxi) and a main-line length of about 342 kilometers.
Wutai Mountain, located in Xinzhou, is a popular tourist destination. The World Cultural Heritage site is commonly known as one of China's four great Buddhist mountains, the others being Emei Mountain (Sichuan province), Putuo Mountain (Zhejiang province), and Jiuhua Mountain (Anhui province).
The Xiong'an-Xinzhou High-speed Railway is an important part of China's plans to develop eight high-speed lines running north-south and eight running east-west. Under the management of China Railway Taiyuan Group, the section under construction is 122.38 kilometers long, with three stations (Wutai Mountain Railway Station, Wutai Station, and Dingxiangbei Railway Station), 11 tunnels, and 16 bridges, said Lin Weijiang, head of the Xiong'an‑Xinzhou railway project command.
According to Wang Yunfei, the on-site construction director of the Wutaishan Railway Station project, the station's design is based on Zen simplicity, in contrast to the intricate and ornate architecture of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). He said that the station is about 15 kilometers from the Wutai Mountain Scenic Area. The station square is planned to accommodate high‑speed rail, highway, public bus, taxi, and private vehicle traffic to address the long‑standing challenge of heavy passenger flow for the area.
Li Jialu and Lan Huidong contributed to this story.
