Published : 2026-06-16
On 16 June, 2022, the Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway (和若鐵路) in China's Xinjiang officially opened.
The Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway starts from Hotan City (和田市) in the west of Xinjiang and reaches Ruoqiang County (若羌縣) in Bazhou in the east, with a total length of 825 kilometres, a designed speed of 120 km/h.
It is a national Class I single-track railway, with reserved conditions for electrification. After opening and operation, it only takes 11 hours and 26 minutes to travel from Hotan City to Ruoqiang County.
The Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway is located at the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, the world's second-largest shifting desert.
A total of 534 kilometres of the railway are distributed in the wind-sand zone, accounting for 65% of the total length, making it a typical desert railway.
Together with the Ruoqiang-Korla section of the Golmud-Korla Railway and the section of the Southern Xinjiang Railway from Korla to Hotan, the Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway forms the world's first desert railway loop, the 2,712-kilometre Taklamakan Desert Railway Loop.
