"I am very excited and proud because I've made contributions to the new line's construction," said Shen Yong, an engineer with the China Railway Tenth Group Co Ltd.
To minimize the frigid environment's impacts on the railway hardware, the ministry has been operating trial runs for the past two months.
One of the major challenges: If the train departs from Dalian and heads for Harbin, the temperature can drop enroute as much as 15 degrees, said Luo Chuanbao, a publicity official of the Ministry of Railways.
The CRH380B high-speed trains on the line are designed to withstand such shifts, said Kong Feng, a senior engineer with the CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles, manufacturer of the cold-proof trains.
The service will cut travel time between the two cities from nine hours to about four.
First national day for road safety marked around China