A section of the Beijing-Urumqi Expressway in Kazak Autonomous County of Barkol, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The 2,800-kilometer expressway, the longest desert-crossing expressway in the world, fully opened to traffic yesterday, with over 500 kilometers passing through desert and no man’s land.
The Beijing-Urumqi Expressway, the longest desert-crossing expressway in the world, fully opened to traffic yesterday after the last section of the route in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was put into operation.
The expressway linking Beijing and Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, has a total length of 2,800 km, with over 500 km passing through desert and no man’s land.
In addition to Beijing and Xinjiang, the expressway passes through four other provincial-level regions: Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Gansu in North China.
It cuts the driving distance between Urumqi and Beijing by more than 1,300 km, making it the fastest road to cross North China, according to Cao Shouhua, a researcher with the Research Institute of Highway, a think tank under the country’s transport ministry.
Sections of the expressway in other provincial-level regions are already in operation. Due to its harsh natural environment and complex geological conditions, the section in Xinjiang was the last to be completed.