On September 8, at the Xi'andong-Lantian work section of the Xi'an-Shiyan High Speed Railway construction site,   workers steadily laid the first pair of 500-meter seamless rails on the ballastless track slabs. This marked the official start of full-scale track laying for the Xi'an-Shiyan High Speed Railway, built by the Shaanxi branch of the Xi'an-Chengdu High-Speed Railway and constructed by China Railway No.4 Engineering Group. The railway starts in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, extends southeast through the Qinling Mountains, and ends in Shiyan, Hubei province. The main line has a total length of 255.76 kilometers and is designed for a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour.