The Hotan–Ruoqiang (Qakilik) railway () is a 825.5 km long

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

connecting the cities of

Hotan Hotan (also known as Gosthana, Gaustana, Godana, Godaniya, Khotan, Hetian, Hotien) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become ...

and Ruoqiang in southern

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 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

that opened on 16 June 2022 with a design speed of . It serves over 10 million people with 20 new stations.

History

Construction on the line began in December 2018. Tracklaying began in May 2020 and by April 2021, over half the track had been laid. On 27 September 2021, the construction of the track was fully completed with the laying of the last length of track. Rail welding was completed on 28 October 2021, with track bed tamping and fine adjustment of the line required before scheduled opening of the entire line in 2022.

Route

The line is long and runs from west to east. In

it continues as the

Kashgar–Hotan railway The Kashgar–Hotan railway or Kahe railway (, abbreviated ), is a single-track, non-electrified, railway in Xinjiang, China between Kashgar and Hotan. The railway is in length and runs along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, connecting ...

and in Qakilik (Ruoqiang), Ruoqiang (Qakilik) County it branches off the

Golmud–Korla railway Geku railway () is a railway connecting Golmud and Korla, in western China. Construction started in November 2014 and was completed in 2020. The length of the line is , joining Qinghai province and Xinjiang province. The investment is estimated ...

. Together with those railways it forms a loop around the west of the

Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...

, linking Hotan, Lop, Qira, Yutian,

Minfeng Niya County ( transliterated from the Uyghur ; ), also from Mandarin Chinese as Minfeng County (), is a county within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administration of the Hotan Prefecture. It contains an area of . Accordi ...

and Bayingolin. The route includes five viaducts over the sand with a combined length of , designed to allow sandstorms to blow under them. 434 bridge piers were factory-built and assembled on site. The longest is Niya River Grand Bridge, which has a total length of . Further protection against sand has been provided by putting about 13 million shrubs, such as sacsaoul and

sea buckthorn ''Hippophae'' is the genus of sea buckthorns, deciduous shrubs in the family Elaeagnaceae. The name sea buckthorn may be hyphenated to avoid confusion with the unrelated true buckthorns (''Rhamnus'', family Rhamnaceae). It is also referred to as ...

, into of grass grids (straw-edged rectangles of about a metre square).

References

Railway lines in China Rail transport in Xinjiang {{PRChina-rail-transport-stub