Shenzhen subway moves swiftly ahead

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 ◆ Shenzhen subway moves swiftly ahead

Workers have begun laying rails on the first subway in Shenzhen city, south China's Guangdong province.

The subway, with 19.5 km of track, will consist of an east-west line and a north-south line with a total of 23 stops.

Construction on the project began in March last year. It is expected to be completed and ready for service in 2004 at a cost of 10.59 billion yuan (1.28 billion US dollars).

Shenzhen is one of the country's five special economic zones.

Only four Chinese cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou -- have subways. Other cities, such as Chongqing, Nanjing, Wuhan, Qingdao and Shenyang, will start to build subways over the next five years. Suzhou, in east China's Jiangsu province, already has plans for a subway.