SHIJIAZHUANG, June 15 -- A 323 km high-speed railway in northern China will be completed and put into use in December, marking the completion of a key high-speed railway network, according to the project chief engineer Thursday.

The passenger railway links Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, with Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, with a speed up to 250 km per hour. It is part of the high-speed trunk railway from Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, to Qingdao, a coastal city in Shandong.

"Most of the Shijiazhuang-Jinan high-speed railway has been completed except a 17-km stretch in Shijiazhuang under construction," said Liang Zhenfa, chief engineer for the project.

The opening of the high-speed railway will mark significant progress in the construction of the country's high-speed railway network, which involves four north-south routes and four east-west ones.

China has a vast and efficient railway network. As of the end of 2016, China had a 124,000 km railway network, featuring the world's largest high-speed rail network at more than 22,000 km.

High-speed railway equipment has become one of the country's major high-tech exports.