The Ningma Line, China's first inter-provincial suburban rail line, built, managed, and operated jointly by Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, has been boosting tourism and people-to-people exchanges as part of the metropolitan area integration process between the two provinces.
The 54.23-kilometer S2 line opened on April 22 this year, connecting Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, with Ma'anshan City in east China's Anhui Province, with 16 stations along the route.
With a maximum operating speed of 120 kilometers per hour, people can travel between the two cities in about 30 minutes for less than 10 yuan (about 1.47 U.S. dollars).
"The opening of the S2 line is great it has boosted economic development and cultural exchange between the two provinces. Today, we headed for this station, and next week, we'll switch to another one. People from Ma'anshan can also easily take a day trip to our Nanjing City, which is really convenient," said Mei Liandi, a traveler from Nanjing.
During this year's May Day holiday (May 1-5), the route transported more than 720,000 passengers, boosting tourism consumption across various scenarios between the two places.
In the height of summer, long queues formed at food stalls in many shopping malls in Ma'anshan, with more than half of the customers being tourists from Nanjing. Similarly, the railway also brings a large number of travelers from other cities to Nanjing.
"Revitalizing the economies of the two cities has been a long-awaited aspiration. As you can tell from the passenger flow on each train that it's full of Nanjing residents," said a traveler from Ma'anshan surnamed Song.
During this year's May Day holiday, Ma'anshan's A-level scenic spots received 781,000 visitors, a year-on-year increase of 73 percent, with visitors from the Nanjing metropolitan area accounting for 55 percent; the number of visitors to commercial districts exceeded 1.2 million, directly boosting consumption by over 70 million yuan (about 10.29 million U.S. dollars).
Inter-provincial rail line boosts metropolitan area integration between Anhui, Jiangsu
