The Jiajing Railway (, shortened form of Jiayuguan–Jingtieshan Railway; ), officially the Jingtieshan Branch Line (), is a -long

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

of the Lanxin Railway in

Gansu Province 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 Tibeta ...

, China. The railway line mostly runs through rural Sunan County and connects

Jiayuguan City Jiayuguan (, ) is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Gansu province, with a population of 312,663 as of the 2020 census. Compared with the 231,853 people in the sixth national census in 2010, there was an increase of 80,810 people, with an ...

with the Jingtieshan iron mine in the

Qilian Mountains The Qilian Mountains (, also romanized as Tsilien; Mongghul: Chileb), together with the Altyn-Tagh (Altun Shan) also known as Nan Shan (, literally "Southern Mountains"), as it is to the south of Hexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of the Kunlu ...

south of Jiayuguan. The route follows the course of the Beida River () through the Qilian Mountains before reaching the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...

outside of Jiayuguan. Construction on the Jiajing Railway began in 1958 and was completed in 1965. Construction of the line involved multiple tunnels and bridges to navigate through the mountains, and the line crosses the Beida a total of 8 times. Originally serving only the Jingtieshan mine operated by , the line now also serves the Xigou mine via a short spur. In addition to the transport of goods, the railway serves as a passenger line primarily for mine workers from Jiayuguan.

Stations

References

{{reflist Railway lines in China Rail transport in Gansu