Construction of China's first railway across the Ulan Buh Desert
and Badain Jaran Desert in north China's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region will begin this year, local railway
sources said.??
The 1,390-kilometer railway starts at Linhe in Inner Mongolia,
runs westward through the Ulan Buh Desert and along the northern
rim of the Badain Jaran Desert on the Sino-Mongolian border, then
enters Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region from northern Gansu
Province and ends at Hami in Xinjiang, according to the railway
administration of Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia. The estimated
cost and scheduled completion date were not disclosed.
The section of the railway in Inner Mongolia is 1,070 kilometers
and the sections in Gansu and Xinjiang are 320 kilometers.
Upon completion, the railway will serve as a direct link between
north and northwest China and will be a convenient passage linking
Xinjiang with north and northeast China and the national capital,
Beijing.
The Linhe-Hami railway runs along the north route of the ancient
Silk Road, which was the land thoroughfare linking China with
Central and Western Asia to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean
between the second century BC and the eight and ninth centuries
AD.
The Ulan Buh Desert and the Badain Jaran Desert are the third
and fourth largest deserts in China.
(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2005)