Summary：Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is looking forward to taking rides on the high-speed trains from Hong...

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is looking forward to taking rides on the high-speed trains from Hong Kong; not only because she is one of the most important figures in the XRL's birth in the city, but also because she's a high-speed rail fan herself.

"High-speed rail has shown a clear advantage in medium- and short-haul travels," Lam said. She recalled her family trip last year on the mainland's high-speed rail to Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a city hailed for having "the best landscape under heaven".

At the time, she took the train from Shenzhen North Station in a three-hour journey to Guilin. In the future, such distances still take about three hours, but people from Hong Kong won't need to travel to Shenzhen first to take the high-speed trains.

"I believe that many people in Hong Kong will particularly favor the high-speed train for this sort of distance," she said.

Lam said she will use the high-speed rail more for business trips. As she has to frequently travel to Shenzhen for meetings with the neighboring city's officials, the XRL will be her preferred choice, Lam said.

"In 14 minutes, I will arrive at my destination - Futian. The time is even shorter than that I spend visiting some of my colleagues' offices in Hong Kong," Lam said.

Pushing forward the joint-checkpoint arrangement was the most memorable part of Lam's work in materializing the high-speed rail services in Hong Kong. Facing skepticism from some members of the public, Lam remained determined.

"All the strengths of the XRL will not come into full play if there is no co-location," Lam said.

After almost a year of hard work, Lam and her government succeeded.

"After all related works were done, I realized that if you really want to achieve something good, you have to rise to the challenge."