The Qidali tunnel on the Lijiang-Shangri-La railway in northwest Yunnan was holed through May 12, after 1,500 plus days of hard work organized by China Railway Tunnel Group (CRTG).

The 8,733-meter tunnel is one of the key projects on the Lijiang-Shangri-La railway. Surrounded by weak rocks that often cause large deformation, the project posed challenges to the Chinese builders.

With an investment of 10.56 billion yuan, the 139.6-kilometer railway is expected to greatly boost tourism in northwest Yunnan.

Reporting by Kang Ping, Yao Wei and Hao Yafan (Yunnan Net); trans-editing by Wang Shixue