Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was on an inspection tour in Jiangsu Province, attended a ceremony in Yangzhou of East China"s Jiangsu Province Saturday to mark the operation of the Nanjing-Yangzhou section of the Nanjing-Qidong railway in Jiangsu.
Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said that the Nanjing-Qidong railway will play an important role in improving the railway network in East China and promoting the development of the Yangtze River Delta, particularly the central and northern parts of Jiangsu.
He called on local governments to make full use of the new railway to achieve further economic and social development to benefit the people.
Hu, during his inspection of the Yangzhou Railway Station, met railway staff members and workers who were still on duty on the "International Labor Day" and learned about the construction and operation of the project.
The Nanjing-Qidong Railway runs from provincial capital Nanjing to Qidong, another city in the province, via Luhe, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Hai"an and Nantong. Construction of other sections of the 365-kilometer railway is going on as scheduled.
