As the world’s longest highway tunnel, the 22.13-km Tianshan Victory Tunnel is nearing completion as the core segment of the Urumqi-Yuli Expressway. Built over five years, this national key project will slash the travel time between Urumqi and Korla from 7 hours to approximately 3 hours, enabling a 20-minute transit across the Tianshan Mountains. This high-speed corridor effectively eliminates the major geographical bottleneck between northern and southern Xinjiang. | Xu Zeyu