HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong on Saturday opened a new high-speed rail link to inland China that will vastly decrease travel times but also raises concerns about Beijing’s creeping influence over the semi-autonomous Chinese region.

香港(美联社)——周六，香港开通了一条通往中国内地的新高铁，这将大大缩短人们的出行时间，但也引发了人们对北京对这个半自治地区的影响力逐渐增强的担忧。

Costing upward of $10 billion and taking more than eight years to build, the system aims to transport more than 80,000 passengers daily between the Asian financial center of 7 million people and the neighboring manufacturing hub of Guangdong province.

该系统耗资100亿美元，耗时8年多才建成，目标是在拥有700万人口的亚洲金融中心和毗邻的制造业中心广东省之间每天运送8万多名乘客。

The train travels the 26 kilometers (16 miles) through Hong Kong to Shenzhen across theborder in China in just 14 minutes, down from about 1 hour currently. The through-train to Guangdong’s capital Guangzhou will take just over half an hour, about 90 minutes faster than current service.

该线路香港到深圳段，全程26公里(16英里)，只需14分钟，而此前需要1小时左右，至广州将只需半个多小时，比目前的列车快90分钟。

Once across the border, passengers can link up with Chinese sprawling nationwide high-speed rail network serving more than 44 destinations, including Shanghai, Beijing and the western city of Xi’an.

列车一旦过境就可与中国庞大的全国高铁网连接起来，可达内地逾44个站点，包括上海、北京和西部城市西安。

Passengers will clear Chinese immigration at the line’s newly built West Kowloon terminus, the source of major legal controversy when it was revealed that mainland Chinese law would apply within roughly one-quarter of the station’s area.

乘客将在新建成的西九龙终点站通关。此前有报道称，中国大陆法律将适用于该终点站大约四分之一的区域，这一消息引发了重大法律争议。

A sign reading China Immigration Inspection is displayed on the ground in the Mainland Port Area at West Kowloon Station, which houses the terminal for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-HongKong Express Rail Link (XRL) in Hong Kong, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. (Giulia Marchi/Pool Photovia AP)

2018年9月22日星期六，在香港广深港快线(XRL)终点站西九龙站，大陆港区的地面上显示着“边境候检区域”的标识，西九龙站为广深港高铁的香港终点站。(Giulia Marchi/照片，美联社)