Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, east China - Jan 13, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of construction site of high-speed railway
2. Various of vehicles driving though tunnel
3. Various of workers in tunnel, operating machines
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Li Minggeng, director, exit section, Dongming Tunnel project:
"We divided the huge project into shorter ones, and conducted the excavation from three inclined shafts and eight working faces at the same time. So we have minimized risks during the construction and made it through geological fault lines safely, and set a new record of tunneling construction by advancing 240 meters in one month under the special and bad geological conditions. All above has provided a favorable condition for the completion of the major part of Dongming tunnel scheduled for September later this year."
5. Workers in tunnel
6. Vehicle in tunnel
7. Aerial shots of construction site of high-speed railway

A 18.226-kilometer high-speed railway tunnel had its first section construction finished on Monday morning, marking a milestone to the completion of the tunnel in near future, the longest one of its kind in east China.

The Dongming Tunnel plays a core role in the construction of Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou high-speed railway, which also marks the first public-private partnership (PPP) funded railroad project of the nation.

Designed to run at a top speed of 350 km per hour, the 266.9-km railway will start from the city of Hangzhou, crossing Shaoxing and ending in Taizhou, covering all cities in east China's Zhejiang Province.

There will be 69 bridges and 56 tunnels making up the railway. The length of the bridges and tunnels accounts for 90 percent of the railway's full length.

As the longest tunnel on the high-speed express, Dongming tunnel gathered a number of skilled engineers with advanced techniques.

"We divided the huge project into shorter ones, and conducted the excavation from three inclined shafts and eight working faces at the same time. So we have minimized risks during the construction and made it through geological fault lines safely, and set a new record of tunneling constructions by advancing 240 meters in one month under the special and bad geological conditions. All above has provided a favorable condition for the completion of the major part of Dongming tunnel scheduled for September later this year," said Li Minggeng, the director of exit section of Dongming tunnel.

The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou high-speed railway is expected to officially enter operation by the end of 2021. Because of connecting with other high-speed railways, it will be a major component of China's coastal expressways.