Editor's note: It has been officially confirmed that Metro Line 3 opened at 10am today, August 29. It is scheduled to run daily from 6:20am until 10:45pm. Ticket cost is based on distance traveled. Rides between one and four kilometers cost two yuan, and increase in price by one yuan for each additional two kilometers. Additionally, Line 6, which currently only travels between Kunming East Bus Station and Changshui International Airport has reopened. It will run everyday from 6:20am-10:20pm. The following article was originally published August 24, and has not been edited to reflect these changes.

Headlines in nearly every Kunming newspaper recently featured something along the lines of "The countdown to opening Metro Line 3 has begun!" Unfortunately, the attached articles prove largely unhelpful as they lack a very pertinent bit of information — when the east-west subway will actually open. Here's what we know so far.

From August 17 to 20, light rail experts and technicians from Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Foshan inspected all 20 stations along the 23.4-kilometer track, riding in new locally built train cars as they went. After traveling multiple times between the line's two terminal stops — Kunming's East Bus Station and Xishan Park Station in the west — the line was declared "fit to begin trial operations".

However, no timetable has been announced for such tests, let alone when the line will officially open. A few