BEIJING -- A high-speed rail link between Beijing and 2022 Winter Olympics co-host Zhangjiakou will begin test runs in August, 2019.

The 174 kilometers link will be open to public by the end of next year.

Travel time from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, about 180 kilometers to the northwest, will be around 50 minutes. Zhangjiakou will host skiing events in 2022.

Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said relocation work is underway and construction is proceeding as planned.

The Beijing section of the line, about 70 kilometers, runs through Haidian, Changping and Yanqing districts.

The route is historically significant. The original Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway was China's first independently-built railway and opened in 1909.