People visit the Yichunxi Railway Station of the Harbin-Yichun high-speed railway in Yichun, northeast China"s Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 28, 2026. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

　　China"s newly opened high-speed railway sections are expected to boost tourism, especially during holidays such as the ongoing National Day holiday, industry experts and local officials said.

　　On Monday, China opened four major high-speed railway sections to traffic, spanning northern, northwestern, central and northeastern China, which are expected to draw more tourists to iconic attractions just ahead of the seven-day holiday.

　　The new lines will bring residents of major cities closer to diverse cultural and natural destinations, from the Three Gorges Dam in central China"s Hubei Province to the emerald forests of Yichun in the country"s far northeast.

　　The Yichang-Xingshan section effectively links high-quality cultural and tourism resources, while the Harbin-Yichun section creates conditions for developing tourism and ecological resources along the routes, said Yuan Baohua, deputy director of the construction department of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway).

　　Liu Yanhong, deputy general manager of Xiong"an high-speed railway corporation, said the Xiong"an-Shangqiu section further links historical and cultural tourism resources across Hebei, Shandong and Henan provinces, driving short-haul cross-regional cultural tourism trips.

　　"The most direct impact is that cities are much closer now -- not just on the map, but in everyday life," said Qu Xiaoyuan, a local cultural and tourism official in Ankang, northwest China"s Shaanxi Province.