Longest tunnel completed on Yichang-Xingshan High-Speed Railway

By Hu Yikai.

A critical tunnel on the Yichang-Xingshan High-Speed Railway was completed on January 21, marking the end of major bridge and tunnel work and paving the way for its scheduled 2026 opening.


After more than 1,900 days of construction by over 2,300 workers, the 16.88-kilometer Xingshandong Tunnel—the longest on the route—was finished at 9 a.m. This milestone indicates that the most challenging engineering sections of this national key project are complete.

Spanning 108.38 kilometers and designed for speeds of 350 km/h, the Yichang-Xingshan line begins at Yichang East Station, passing through multiple districts before connecting to the Zhengzhou-Chongqing High-Speed Railway in Xingshan County. Once operational, travel time between Xingshan and downtown Yichang will be reduced from two hours to just 20 minutes, fully integrating the county into Yichang's "half-hour economic circle."

The railway will also position Xingshan within a high-speed rail economic framework known as the "1-2-4" network, enabling one-hour access to neighboring cities, two-hour connections to major hubs like Chongqing, and four-hour trips to top-tier cities such as Beijing.

Long Jie, Chen Xiangrui, Yang Jing, Yang Xue, Song Ying, and Fu Beibei also contributed to this story.