Beijing Railway Administration recently announced that, by the end of June, 2011, it will allow passengers to buy train tickets for the Beijing to Shanghai high-speed railway line via phone and on the Internet.

The 1,318-kilometer long Beijing to Shanghai high-speed railway is scheduled to open in June 2011 and is designed to have a speed of 350 kilometers per hour. The railway will be able to transport 80 million passengers a year.

The journey time between the country's two major economic zones will be cut to less than five hours from the current 10 hours.

Industry analysts say that the high-speed rail link is likely to cause severe competition between the railway and domestic airlines.