SHENYANG, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- A section of the high-speed railway linking Beijing and Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, is scheduled to start operation on Saturday.

In the initial period, trains will run up to 300 km per hour between Shenyang and the city of Chengde in Hebei Province, Qu Xiangjin, director of the office of Liaoning provincial railway construction management, told a press briefing on Tuesday.

The high-speed railway service will cut the travel time on the section to as short as two hours and 21 minutes, nearly nine hours shorter than the current fastest normal rail trip, said Qu.

Six pairs of trains will run daily in the first week and as of Jan. 5, the number of trains will be increased to 15 pairs, Qu said.

After the whole of Beijing-Shenyang high-speed railway is put into operation, the travel time between the two cities will be cut to a minimum of two and a half hours.

The 698-km high-speed railway, designed for a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, will connect nine high-speed railways in northeast China in the future.