China has entered the bullet train era with the official operation of the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed train service Saturday.

China Ministry of Railways spokesman Wang Yongping said with the completion of the Zhengzhou-Xian, Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway projects and upgrading some of the present electric train services, Beijing would become the hub of railway transport for major cities in China by 2012.

The 1068-kilometre Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway project took three years to complete.

Two trains seperately start from Wuhan and Guangzhou city at 9 am and reach their destinations within three hours.

The high-speed train service has cut short the travel time by seven-anda-half hours, where the normal train took ten-and-a-half hours.

The train travels at a speed of 350km per hour beating France's high-speed railway to become the fastest train in the world.

The train was said to have achieved a maximium speed of 394.2 km per hour during its trail run in December.

The average speed of France's high-speed train is 277km per hour, while Japan's is 243 km per hour, and 232 km per hour in Germany.

China's high-speed trains run across Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong provinces, connecting 11 cities and 44 district.