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(101230) -- ENSHI, Dec. 30, 2010 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken on Jan. 10, 2009 shows a celebration ceremony marking the completion of a tunnel after overcoming a series of tough challenges on the railway connecting Yichang in central China's Hubei Province and Wanzhou District of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality in Enshi, central China's Hubei Province.. A train carrying more than 900 passengers left Enshi Station for a two-hour journey to Yichang City on Dec. 22, 2010, marking the beginning of the operation of the railway connecting Yichang and Wanzhou, a railway considered to be China's most difficult and expensive to build.. The length of track that runs through bridges and tunnels accounts for about 74 percent of the line's total. In the most extreme case, it took almost six years to drill a tunnel through Qiyue Mountain due to complex and dangerous construction conditions. It took about 50,000 workers seven years to dig and complete 159 tunnels and build 253 bridges through a stretch of mountains on the eastern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau for the project. It cost about 60 million yuan to build each kilometer, compared with 29 million yuan per kilometer for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.. Travel times from central or east China cities to southwest China will be significantly shorter. The railway brings new opportunities to residents who live in the steep and remote mountains.. (Xinhua/Shen Xianghui) (xzj) (KEYSTONE/XINHUA/Shen Xianghui)