On the Gobi Desert, key breakthroughs have been made in cross-border infrastructure construction between China and Mongolia. The construction team has overcome extreme environmental obstacles, steadily promoted railway engineering construction, and helped promote high-quality development of bilateral cross-border trade connectivity.

More than half of the engineering construction

On August 27, 2026, the second cross-border railway between China and Mongolia, from Ganqimaodu to Gashusu Haitu Railway, completed all pier construction, and the offline main bridge project was successfully completed. The project officially entered the stage of beam erection and upper structure construction of the bridge deck system, and the overall construction progress was more than half successful, laying a solid foundation for the on-time opening of the railway. The project will officially start construction in May 2025, and will be jointly designed, constructed, and promoted by China and Mongolia.

Construction of tackling the Gobi Desert

The project is located in the Gobi Desert region, with frequent strong winds and sandstorms throughout the year, significant temperature differences between day and night, a short frost free period, and complex customs clearance procedures for materials, as well as difficulties in coordinating multiple parties. As a result, the effective construction time is extremely limited. The construction team has deployed a comprehensive wind speed monitoring and warning system, flexibly adjusted the construction period, and seized the opportunity to carry out concrete pouring operations at windless windows at night. At the same time, optimize the concrete mix ratio, improve insulation and curing measures, accurately control the construction quality, and ensure the stability and compliance of the engineering structure.

Highlight the value of the channel

This cross-border railway line has a total length of 9.91 kilometers, with 6.08 kilometers of cross-border bridge sections. The entire line is equipped with 321 piers and 760 prefabricated T-beams need to be erected. At present, 701 T-beams have been prefabricated and 390 have been erected. It is expected that all beam erection tasks can be completed by October this year. The route connects the ports of China and Mongolia, and opens up the Ganquan Railway and the southbound railway channel in Mongolia. After its opening, the annual freight capacity can reach 30 million tons. Keywords: Infrastructure construction, economic and trade cooperation

After the project is implemented, it will further improve the China Mongolia border freight network, expand bilateral trade channels, deepen economic and trade cooperation and industrial linkage between the two countries, continuously activate the economic vitality of the northern Xinjiang border ports, and inject long-term momentum into regional coordinated development.Editor/Min Jing