A new line connecting the city in Jiangsu province to Shanghai makes it easier to enjoy its natural wonders. Zhang Kun writes.

High-speed train route that opened on April 9 makes Liyang's hot springs, celebrated fish soup and bamboo forests more accessible to visitors from Shanghai and other cities.

The city in Jiangsu province is near the border with Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. Liyang's high-speed train station opened in 2013, making the city accessible from any of these provinces' capitals.

Visitors from Shanghai used to transfer between trains at Nanjing South or Hangzhou East stations. This would usually take about three hours. Driving from Shanghai to Liyang takes about three and a half hours.

But the new G7395/7397 train route enables tourists to travel directly between Shanghai and Liyang in two hours and 40 minutes.

The new route was launched around the opening of the annual Liyang tea festival and tourism mart that ran from April 10 to May 10.

"Fine jade artifacts unearthed in Liyang date back over 5,000 years," says Zhu Hongxin, head of the city's tourism administration.

"The county of Liyang was established in 221 BC. We are one of the 57 counties and cities in China that have kept their original names."