Among the first passengers of the new high-speed railway between Chengdu and Chongqing was a man with a history as storied as the route: soldier, rail builder, reporter, war correspondent, poet, suspected spy.

Sun Yisun helped to build the old Chengdu-Chongqing railway, the first constructed after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

"It was the pride of Sichuan, and also a demarcation line of Sun's life," said Tang Jie, a railway bureau spokeswoman who helped organize the former workers' trip on the new line's first train on Dec 26.