(
Hong Kong Coliseum in the background) Construction of the railway began in February 1993. It was opened on 1 September 1996, connecting Beijing and Shenzhen (and thereupon with Kowloon through the KCR East Rail) through
Tianjin,
Hebei,
Shandong,
Henan,
Anhui,
Hubei,
Jiangxi and
Guangdong, with a length of . It has 790 bridges and 160 tunnels. The
Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge, at a length of , is the longest across the
Yangtze River. Located between
Jinghu railway (Beijing–Shanghai) and
Jingguang railway (Beijing–Guangzhou) with a designed annual traffic volume of 70 million tonne, it was built to alleviate the congested Jingguang railway, and to foster development in the areas to the east of Jingguang railway. The idea had been proposed for a long time, and some of the sections, such as the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge, were built before construction of the whole line officially began. Some were converted from existing sections, such as between Jiujiang and
Nanchang, and
Fuyang and
Shangqiu. The railway uses the same line as
Guangmeishan railway (Guangzhou–Meizhou–Shantou railway) between
Longchuan and
Dongguan. It joins the
Guangshen railway (Guangzhou–Shenzhen railway, formerly the
Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton railway) at
Dongguan, and follows the same route. Within Hong Kong, it shares the same pair of tracks with the
East Rail line (formerly British section of the Kowloon–Canton railway).
Beijing–Kowloon through train services was previously provided on the Jingguang railway and Guangshen railway, instead of the Jingjiu railway, because Beijing-Kowloon line emphasizes freight traffic and pass through less major cities. Passengers using such service are required to go through customs and immigration checks for the cross-border service. However, the conventional cross-border services have been discontinued. Electrification of the line between
Beijing West and
Lehua was completed in May 2010 allowing operating speeds to increase from with provisions for operation of
double-stack container trains. ==Places served==