The Dunhuang–Golmud railway or Dunge railway () is a railway between

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

and

Golmud Golmud, also known by various other romanizations, is a county-level city in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. It is now the second-largest city in Qinghai and the third largest in the Tibetan Pla ...

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

Northwestern China Northwest China () is a statistical region of China which includes the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Ningxia and the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai. It has an area of 3,107,900 km2. The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid cont ...

. The railway from Dunhuang to Golmud consists of two parts: an existing section of the Qinghai–Tibet railway from Golmud to Yinmaxia station, and a newly built single-track electrified rail line connecting Yinmaxia station to Dunhuang, following a route similar to that of

China National Highway 215 China National Highway 215 (G215) (sometimes referred to as Gansu Provincial Highway 215) runs from Hongliuyuan, Gansu to Yushu, Qinghai. It was originally 641 kilometres in length and ran south from Hongliuyuan towards Golmud. As part of the 20 ...

. The railway allows passenger trains to run at speeds up to and can carry freight trains of up to 4000 tonnes. The construction of the line began in December 2012 and finished in December 2019. Since Dunhuang, located in the westernmost part of Gansu, is already connected to the

Lanzhou–Xinjiang railway The Lanzhou−Xinjiang railway or Lanxin railway (), is the longest railway in Northwestern China. It runs 1904 kilometres (1,183 miles) from Lanzhou, Gansu, through the Hexi Corridor, to Ürümqi, in Xinjiang. It was Xinjiang's only rail link wi ...

by the Liugou–Dunhuang branch (the Liudun railway, ), the Dunhuang–Golmud link establishes a direct connection between

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

and

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...

. Provisions is made for upgrading to

double-track railway A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

in the future.

Engineering challenges

Around Shashangou, between Dunhuang and the

Altyn-Tagh Altyn-Tagh (also Altun Mountains, Altun Shan; , Pinyin: ''A'erjin Shan'', Wade–Giles: ''A-erh-chin Shan;'' Uyghur'':ئالتۇن تاغ'') is a mountain range in Northwestern China that separates the Eastern Tarim Basin from the Tibetan Plate ...

– Qilian mountain system, the railway crosses the eastern edge of the

Kumtag Desert The Kumtag Desert (, "kum-tag" meaning "sand-mountain" in a number of Turkic languages), is an arid landform in Northwestern China, which was proclaimed as a national park in the year 2002. Definitions Broad The oval Tarim Basin with its central ...

. There was a concern that the "megadunes" characteristic of this area may shift, burying the railway. However, geological research indicated that the "megadunes" are mostly formed by solid subsoil, rather than just sand. Although there is still the issue of drifting sand, it is thought by the experts that the sand is mostly blown along the direction of the future railway rather than across it, and can be handled with certain precautions.Study on the Feasibility of Dunhuang–Golmud Railway Crossing the Megadunes Area at the East Edge of Kumtagh Desert
, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAREERI, CAS) The railway has 9 tunnels, with the total length of 32.62 km.新建铁路敦煌至格尔木线环境影响评价第二次公示
(Environmental Impact Assessment of the Dunhuang–Golmud railway), 2010-03-04

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunhuang-Golmud Railway Railway lines in China Mountain railways Rail transport in Gansu Rail transport in Qinghai Railway lines opened in 2019