China's landmark Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail service will be faster than any train in Europe with speeds of more than 350 kmh.

The final links of the 1,318-km track were laid on Monday, and the first service will operate next year.

The Ministry of Railways of China says the 220.94 billion yuan (24.7 billion euros) rail network aims to slash travel times between Beijing and Shanghai to just four hours, from the current 10-hour journey.

The longest high-speed railway in Europe is located in France stretching 1,067 km from Calais to Marseilles.

In 2001, a world record of three hours and 29 minutes was set over 1,000 km with an average speed of 305 kmh.

Guo Zhiyong, deputy chief engineer of China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co Ltd, which designed the line, says the train will be quickest to ever travel on Chinese soil.

"The upcoming test run on this line is expected to surpass the speed record of 416.6 kmh achieved by the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway on Sept 28 (which used a train for commercial service instead of a specially modified train)," he says.

"The core factor that can tell a country's high-speed railway technology is the speed."

The line serves an area on China's eastern coast where 25 percent of the nation's population lives and more than 40 percent of the country's GDP is generated.

The 24-station railway will handle 80 million passengers in each direction annually.

Track work only began in April, 2008 and some 135,000 workers were employed.

The speed of construction of the Beijing-Shanghai railway compared to other international rail projects has amazed the international engineering community. The French high-speed rail line from Calais to Marseilles began in 1981 and was completed 20 years later.

Yang Hao, professor of railway transport at the Beijing Jiaotong University, says China imported high-speed railway technologies from Germany, France and Japan, which served as a basis for further innovation and development.

Innovations include a special tunnel construction that allows trains to safely pass inside the tunnel at 350kmh, and the construction of the world's first six-line high-speed railway bridge, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, which spans 336 meters and allows trains to pass at 300 kmh.

China now leads the world in high-speed train networks with 7,431 km of special track in operation. However, by 2012 this figure will almost double to 13,000 km.

The ambitious high-speed rail plan will generate huge demand for maintenance services providing many opportunities for European companies.

Siemens AG of Germany has reportedly received orders to supply components for the Beijing-Shanghai railway, and Alstom of France is planning to cooperate with local Chinese companies to provide maintenance.

And down the track, China and Europe could be linked with a new high-speed railway.

Wang Mengshu, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in March this year that China is envisaging a rail link running through the middle of Asia to western Europe.

The London to Beijing journey on this 200 kmh service would take two days.

Tan Zongyang contributed to this story.