High-speed-rail commuters between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland will be served with seven new stations starting on July 1 — the 28th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The additions will take the number of mainland destinations directly served by the city’s high-speed-rail network to 96. The new destinations include the popular tourist spots of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province; Furongzhen, Hunan province; and Enping, Guangdong province.

The new stations — Enping, Furongzhen, Jingdezhenbei, Lechangdong, Xianningbei, Luohexi and Leiyangxi — will be included in five long-haul northbound and southbound routes.

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For instance, the northbound G100, to Shanghai Hongqiao station, will stop at Jingdezhanbei, a railway station of Jingdezhen — the “porcelain capital” — after a nearly five-hour journey from Hong Kong.

The southbound G6079, departing from Zhangjiajiexi station, will have a brief stop at scenic Furongzhen, a town situated on cliffs above a waterfall, on its way back to Hong Kong.

Enping — a prominent ancestral hometown for many Hong Kong residents — will be reached in about two and a half hour by high-speed rail, after passengers board G6048/5 to Zhanjiangxi station.

MTR Corp, which operates the Hong Kong section of the high-speed rail network, said on Monday the additional stations will offer greater flexibility for high-speed rail commuters making family visits and leisure trips in either direction.

The company said the optimized routes will also offer passengers a more convenient travel experience as it will cover more tourism attractions.

With the launch of the new routes, MTR has adjusted its high-speed rail timetable, including changes to intermediate stops on certain routes. For example, northbound trains serving the G306 Tianjinxi route will no longer be stopping at the Hengshanxi station in Hunan province.

The high-speed railway has become a major source of transportation between Hong Kong and the mainland. By March, the West Kowloon station has welcomed over 75 million inbound and outbound passenger trips since its operation, including over 1 million trips by foreigners.

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Also on July 1, the Shenzhenbei station will launch the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA)’s first sleeper train service to Taiyuan, Shanxi province, with sleepers departing Shenzhen every Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The number of train trips bound for Shenzhen from the Guangzhou, Guangzhoudong and Guangzhou Baiyun stations will be increased daily to enhance the Guangzhou-Shenzhen intercity railway service.

At the same time, travel times from the Guangzhounan station to multiple cities of the Yangtze River Delta region will be further shortened, with the fastest journey to the Hangzhoudong and Shanghai Hongqiao stations condensed 20 minutes and 17 minutes respectively.

Contact the writer at amberwu@chindailyhk.com