On January 16, 2021, the first 500-meter-long rail of the Lijiang-Shangri-La Railway was successfully laid, marking the beginning of the laying of seamless long rails on the entire Lijiang-Shangri-La Railway.

Lixiang Railway Project

The Lijiang-Shangri-La Railway is located in the northwestern part of Yunnan Province. The line starts from Lijiang and crosses the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the first grand canyon of the Jinsha River, to Shangri-La. It is 140 kilometers long and has a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour.

The main line of the Lixiang Railway is laid with 137.487 kilometers of cross-interval seamless tracks, of which 53.481 kilometers of ballast tracks, 84.006 kilometers of elastic supporting block-type ballastless tracks, and 25.275 kilometers of railway tracks are laid. It was established by China Railway 21st Bureau Group Road and Bridge Company. The third branch of the first bidder in front of the Lixiang station is responsible for the construction independently. According to project manager Yue Yangfeng, the proportion of bridges and tunnels on the entire Lixiang Railway is as high as 73%, and the distribution is extremely scattered. Long steel rails will be laid for the ballasted section using the replacement construction method, and the ballastless section will be used for the push and direct laying construction method.

The Lixiang Railway has passed through famous scenic spots such as Yulong Snow Mountain, Haba Snow Mountain and Tiger Leaping Gorge. After it is completed and opened to traffic, it will greatly fill the shortcomings of the railway network and transportation services in northwestern Yunnan, and end the history of no railways in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. By then, it is expected that it will arrive in 4 hours from Kunming to Shangri-La, while it will only take about 1 hour from Lijiang to Shangri-La. Editor/He Yuting