A passenger poses for photos with a train crew member before taking the first train running on the high-speed railway linking Beijing and Hohhot, in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Dec. 30, 2019. As the Zhangjiakou-Hohhot high-speed railway and Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway both went into operation, the first high-speed railway linking Beijing and north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region went into service Monday. The travel time between Hohhot and Beijing, about 500 km apart, will be shortened to about two hours from over nine hours with the launch of the new service. (Photo by Bei He/Xinhua)