World’s longest limited-access highway tunnel opens in China’s Xinjiang.

 The 22-kilometer-long Tianshan Shengli Tunnel will reduce a difficult mountain climb to just 20 minutes.

The world's longest highway tunnel has opened to travelers in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to Xinhua News Agency. The 22.13-kilometer-long Tianshan Shengli Tunnel runs through the heart of the Tianshan Mountains. It reduces a difficult mountain experience that once took several hours to just 20 minutes. The tunnel is part of the G0711 Urumqi-Yuli Expressway, which opened on the same day. The route is an important link between northern and southern Xinjiang. A quick journey across the Tianshan Mountains. The Tianshan Mountains stretch for about 2,500 kilometers across central Xinjiang.

It separates the region’s largest metropolis, Urumqi, in the north, from the largest city, Korla, in the south. With the route now open, the travel time between the two cities has been reduced from about seven hours to about three hours. It is a major transportation corridor. Built over five years, the route is 324.7 kilometers long and cost 46.7 billion yuan (about $6.63 billion). Through the existing expressway, the new route connects Xinjiang to major economic regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing region. The limited-access highway will improve connectivity between north and south Xinjiang, help boost economic growth, and open up new routes for trade and exchanges with countries across Eurasia.