NANNING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- A Fuxing bullet train on Thursday morning departed from Nanning, the capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, marking the launch of full-scale high-speed rail services in south China's Karst regions.

Spanning 482 kilometers, the new railway connects Nanning with Guiyang, the capital of the southwestern province of Guizhou, according to China Railway Nanning Group Co., Ltd.

The Guiyang-Nanning High-Speed Railway was designed to facilitate a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour, and it is the first railway of its kind to be built in either Guizhou or Guangxi, both of which are known for their Karst landscapes.

The time it takes to travel from Guiyang to Nanning has now been reduced from over five hours to approximately three hours, greatly benefiting residents in mountainous areas and contributing to economic growth along the route.

The new railway has 13 stations, with the Guizhou section housing six of those stations and the Guangxi section housing seven stations.