A one-way railway connecting Dali to Lijiang, two well-known tourist cities in southwest China's Yunnan Province, went into operation on last Monday.

Bai Enpei, secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), heralded the newly-completed line as the "lifeline of the people in western Yunnan" while addressing a function organized Monday to mark completion of the south-to-north railway.

Line construction began in December 2004 and completion was set for June 2008. Complex terrain and repeated revisions of the plan, including a decision to use electric power for traction instead of diesel-powered locomotive, led to delays, according to Su Huimin, an official in charge of publicity with Kunming Railway Bureau

The railway cost 4.55 billion yuan (669 million U.S. dollars), paid for by the Chinese Ministry of Railways and Yunnan Provincial Government, said Song Xiude, chief of Kunming Railway Bureau.

"The completion of Dali-Lijiang railway is of great significance for Yunnan to expand its rail network and increase contacts with interior areas of China and with countries in south and southeast Asia," said Song.

Song said the line will be linked to the southeast Asian rail network via a 350-km-long railway being constructed between Dali and Ruili, a city on the Sino-Myanmar border, begun in 2008 and to be completed in 2014.

Su Huimin with Kunming Railway Bureau confirmed Monday the railway was the first in western Yunnan and had a length of 162 km.

The only land link between the two places before was a highway. Along the railway, the region is mainly inhabited by ethnic groups, and has many cultural relics, tourist sites, and natural resources.

With a designed speed of 120 km per hour, the line will be expanded to link more towns in Diqing Tibet Autonomous Precture, also in western Yunnan, including Shangri-la, a popular tourist destination, said Song.

A spokesman for Western Yunnan Railway Construction Headquarters said the line had 47 tunnels and 76 bridges.