Galloping at a lightning pace of 350 kilometers an hour, shuttling people between the capital Jakarta and the metropolis Bandung within a mere 45 minutes from what used to be 3.5 hours, a symbol of fruits that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promises for its partners, "Whoosh" has recently been launched as Southeast Asia's first high-speed railway in Indonesia.

The 142.3-km long high-speed line has four stations and connects Jakarta and Bandung, the West Java provincial capital and a popular tourist destination. It is revolutionizing connections between Indonesia's two metropolitan regions: Greater Jakarta, which has around 32 million residents, and Bandung, which houses over 8 million people.