North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region started to jointly debug and test its first bullet train on Wednesday, which will end the “no bullet train” history in the region.

The tested railway is between the region’s capital of Hohhot and Baotou City, covering a length of 146.5 kilometers (91 miles) and a population of 10.66 million people. The difference this time is the debugging and testing work is conducted in the alpine area and also on the existing line.

“There are over 30 trains operating on this line every day, and we need to conduct our work during the interval of those trains in order to ensure their normal operations. And we have arranged our work at night because there are too many trains during the day,” said Zhang Hongguang, deputy chief engineer of the Hohhot Railway Administration.

The test work mainly focuses on the smoothness of the rails, auto control of the train, signals, communications and security and stability of the hauling and power supply systems. And there are 296 items for the signal test alone.

“If there are some problems for the transponder, it will pose threats to the operation of the train. So we need to strictly test every item to ensure there are no risks at all,” Zhang added.

According to the plan, the joint debugging and testing work will last over one month. And if it runs smoothly, 15 bullet trains will be officially put into use on Jan. 15 next year.

This story is compiled with information from the CCTV News Content.