By rosebell
As the world’s longest expressway tunnel, the 22.13-km Tianshan Shengli Tunnel, that runs beneath the central Tianshan Mountains, was opened to traffic on 26 December 2025 in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Being entered service on the same day, the G0711 Urumqi–Yuli Expressway was formed by this tunnel.
With the aim of strengthening links between urban centres in northern and southern Xinjiang, the project decreases a journey that previously took several hours across mountainous terrain to almost 20 minutes by routing traffic through the tunnel.
Linking with major economic regions including Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and the Chengdu–Chongqing region, through existing road networks, this corridor is positioned as part of wider transport links between China’s eastern economic areas and countries across Eurasia.
While separating Urumqi in the north from Korla in the south, the Tianshan mountain range expands about 2,500 km across central Xinjiang and the new expressway now operational, travel time between the two cities has been reduced from around seven hours to approximately three hours.
With 46.7bn yuan (about $6.63bn) value, construction of this expressway took five years and the scheme covers 324.7 km.
Considering that an 11-km section includes 14 bridges and five tunnels, it resultes in a bridge-and-tunnel ratio exceeding 90%, whereas the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel itself is 22.13km long and reaches a maximum burial depth of 1,112.2m.
Passing through 16 geological fault zones, this project was built under conditions that included high ground stress, strong seismic activity, strict environmental requirements, extreme cold and high altitude.
Running through glaciers, grasslands, forested valleys, Gobi desert and wetlands, the expressway is intended to support freight movement, tourism and closer economic integration between northern and southern Xinjiang.
