Key transportation link

The 4,395-kilometer-long Lianyungang-Khorgos Expressway, also known as the G30 Expressway, which stretches across the country from Lianyungang in East China's Jiangsu province to the China-Kazakhstan border at Khorgos in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is the longest contiguous expressway in China.

Passing through Jiangsu and Anhui provinces in East China, Central China's Henan province and Northwest China's Shaanxi province, Gansu province and Xinjiang, it was opened to traffic on Dec 31, 2014. It goes across varied topographies including plains, plateaus, mountains and deserts.

There's a considerable overlap between the expressway's sections in Gansu province and Xinjiang and the Hexi Corridor, the main artery on the ancient Silk Road.