[5] On 4 December, a section of the railway under construction in Shenzhen collapsed following a cave-in, leaving 13 workers missing.

The existing Xinhui branch[7] of the Guangzhou–Zhuhai intercity railway will be included as a central link, with 265 km (165 mi) of new trackage extending west to Maoming and then a new tunnel across the Pearl River Delta from Shenzhen south of the Humen Pearl River Bridge.

[8] It will then cross through a tunnel underneath the Pearl River[9] before reaching Xiaolan, Guzhen, Waihai, Jiangmen South, Shuangshuizhen, Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Dahuai, Heshan, Yangjiang, Yangxi, Mata, Guanzhu, Dianbai and Maoming East.

A special feature of the Jiangmen–Maoming section is a 2,036-metre (6,680 ft) steel tunnel protecting the Birds' Paradise from the noise of the high-speed railway line.

[14][9] The construction plan of China Railway Guangzhou Group Corp. shows the Shenzhen-Jiangmen section costs 51.3 billion yuan (US$7.27 billion); the project starts from Xili railway station in Nanshan District of Shenzhen, and passes through Bao'an District of Shenzhen and Dongguan, Zhongshan to end in Jiangmen.

It has seven stations: Xili, Shenzhen Airport East, Dongguan Binhaiwan, Nansha, Zhongshan North, Henglan and Jiangmen.