On September 28, the Xiong'an–Shangqiu section of the Beijing–Hong Kong High-Speed Railway officially commenced operations, ushering Liaocheng into the era of dual high-speed rail lines. As the Jinan–Zhengzhou High-Speed Railway and the Xiong'an–Shangqiu section of the Beijing–Hong Kong High-Speed Railway intersect at Liaochengxi Railway Station to form a "golden cross", this city in western Shandong has shed its status as an inland transportation dead end, emerging as a vital regional hub at the junction of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan provinces. Designed for speeds of up to 350 km/h, the Xiong'an–Shangqiu High-Speed Railway features three stations within Liaocheng: Linqingdong, Liaochengxi, and Yanggudong. Travel time from Liaocheng to Beijing is reduced to around 1.5 hours and to Xiong'an to about 1 hour, seamlessly linking the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, the Jinan Metropolitan Area, and the Central Plains City Cluster. Looking back over the past three decades, Liaocheng has fundamentally reshaped its connectivity—from the opening of the Beijing–Kowloon Railway that ended its railway-free era, to the realization of the Jinan–Zhengzhou High-Speed Railway, and now the delivery of the Xiong'an–Shangqiu High-Speed Railway. Liaocheng is accelerating the build-out of a comprehensive multimodal transport network. With its expressway grid expanded, the Liaocheng–Tai'an Yellow River Road-Rail Bridge taking shape, and the Liaocheng Airport project officially approved, the city is advancing toward integrated road-rail-air multimodal transport. Capitalizing on its hub advantages, Liaocheng is capturing innovation spillovers from Beijing and Tianjin through a collaborative model of "R&D in Beijing, commercialization in Liaocheng". By transforming transit traffic into industrial momentum, the city is empowering competitive industries such as non-ferrous metals, pharmaceuticals, and new energy vehicles, unlocking new potential for coordinated regional development.