Southwest China's Yunnan Province has planned to lay a high-speed maglev line to link the provincial capital of Kunming and the mountainous city of Lijiang. 

Zhou Minxin, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said on Sunday that the high-speed maglev system designed to boast a top speed of over 350 km per hour with a total length of 430 km is estimated to need an investment of more than 100 billion yuan (14.2 billion U.S. dollars). 

"The golden tourist route is expected to attract a large number of passengers," Zhou said. 

Currently, railway passengers en route from Kunming to Lijiang have to detour through Dali. The limited railway capacity cannot meet the rising passenger and freight transport demands. 

Lijiang is known for its quaint towns and the snow-capped Yulong Mountain. Both Kunming and Lijiang are popular domestic tourist destinations.

(Cover: Yulong Snow Mountain in Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province. /VCG)