China opens world’s longest expressway tunnel in Xinjiang

China on Friday opened to traffic a 22.13-km-long tunnel, which it claimed to be the “world’s longest”, in Xinjiang province. The Tianshan Shengli tunnel, which traverses through the central Tianshan Mountains in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has reduced a treacherous mountain journey of several hours to about 20 minutes, official media reported. According to Song Hailiang, chairman of China Communications Construction Company, the tunnel has “set two world records”. “It is the longest expressway tunnel in the world and has the deepest vertical shaft for a highway tunnel,” Song said. The tunnel is a key part of the G0711 Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, which also became operational on Friday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The expressway serves as a major transport artery linking city clusters in northern and southern Xinjiang. Stretching 2,500 km, the Tianshan Mountains span central Xinjiang, separating the provincial capital Urumqi, the largest city in the north, from Korla, the largest city in the south. With the opening of the expressway, travel time between Urumqi and Korla has been reduced from around seven hours to about three hours, the report said. The expressway, constructed over five years, is 324.7-km-long with a total investment of 46.7 billion yuan (about USD 6.63 billion).