Lanxin railway

The westernmost point of the railway in Alataw Pass, 2360 kilometers from the starting point in Lanzhou

The Lanxin railway, or Lanzhou–Xinjiang railway (Traditional Chinese: 蘭新鐵路; Simplified Chinese: 兰新铁路; pinyin: Lánxīn Tiělù) is a railway in the People's Republic of China.

The railway is the only railway linking Xinjiang to the rest of China. It extends 1903.8 kilometers from Lanzhou (it's easternmost point) to the Urumqi, and another 477 kilometers extended line to Alataw Pass (it's westernmost point), where China's Alashankou railway station is connected to Kazakhstan's Dostyk station.

It forms part of the Second Eurasian Continental Bridge which extends from eastern China to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

For part of its path, it travels along a similar route to that of the Silk Road.

It was built by the China Railway Engineering Corporation. Construction of the initial stage (to Urumqi) started in 1952 and was completed in 1962. The extension to the Kazakhstan border was built in the late 1980s, linkup with the Kazakhstan Railroads achieved on September 12, 1990.

See also

• List of railways in China

References

• Xinjiang Travel Guide. China Travel Guide. Retrieved on Dec 24, 2005.
• The Economic Development of Xinjiang After the Founding of New China. Government White Papers. Retrieved on Dec 24, 2005.
• Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway. China Railway Engineering Corporaton. Retrieved on Dec 24, 2005.