Successful Debut

The newly launched high-speed rail link between the mainland and Hong Kong had recorded 880,000 passenger trips, the rail service operator MTR Corp. said on October 7.

Since commencing service on September 23, train operations have been smooth, MTR said. The cumulative number of tickets sold, including those sold in the pre-sale period, has exceeded 1 million.

The high-speed rail provides comfortable and convenient train services for passengers traveling between Hong Kong and mainland cities, MTR CEO Lincoln Leong said.

The high-speed rail connects Hong Kong with 44 stations in the Chinese mainland without changing, including six short-haul and 38 longhaul destinations.

“As we are still in the early days of operations, there may still be teething issues which may cause some inconvenience to passengers. We will continue to listen to passengers’ views and seek continuous improvements. Our aim is to provide passengers with high-quality high-speed rail service,” said Lau. from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on October 9.

The satellites, both part of the Yaogan-32 family, were launched by a Long March-2c rocket with an attached upper stage at 10:43 a.m. Beijing time. The satellites have entered their planned orbits and will be used for electromagnetic environmental surveys and additional technology tests.

This was the first flight of the upper stage named Yuanzheng-1s, or Expedition-1s. It cooperated well with the Long March-2c rocket and significantly improved the capacity of the rocket, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle