Yanqing-Chongli Expressway leads you to a skiing journey

The Yanqing-Chongli Expressway

"Previously, when driving from Beijing to Chongli, we had to transfer onto the Zhangjiakou-Chengde Expressway, inadvertently making a detour. With the completion of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway, not only has travel efficiency improved, but new leisure activities are created," said a tourist from Beijing.

Since the main line of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway was completed and opened to traffic, it has promoted the small northern region of Chongli district in Zhangjiakou city, Hebei province, to become an "international cultural and tourism hub".

Many young locals, born and raised in the area where for generations people have been farmers, have become "gold medal coaches" at various ski resorts. Not only have their family conditions been significantly improved, they have also become friends with a large number of snow enthusiasts from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and even from abroad.

Tunnels of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway 

In 2015, when the International Olympic Committee demanded transportation efficiency for personnel between the two major competition zones of Yanqing and Zhangjiakou for the Beijing Olympic Winter Games bid, the staff of the Beijing Olympics Winter Games Bid Committee confidently stated: "We cannot shorten the physical distance between the two places, but we can shorten the travel time."

From that moment, a development blueprint began to take shape in the minds of the builders of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway. It was not only to build a high-speed highway to ensure the success of the Winter Olympics events, but also to seize the opportunity and inject new vitality into the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region through this vital link spanning between Beijing and Zhangjiakou, creating a quality benchmark for China's expressway construction.

However, the construction work for the expressway was particularly arduous. In the Hebei section of the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway, the main line is only 81 kilometers, but it crosses over two major fault zones and deeply buried loess areas, with 7 large bridges and 5 long tunnels constructed along its path. Additionally, tight deadlines, extremely cold weather and the complex geological conditions presented numerous challenges for the builders.

The need to change the construction plan every four days did not deter the builders.

Through the hard work of the construction workers during the winters of 2017 and 2018, the Yanqing-Chongli Expressway ZT12 section set a record for continuous tunnel construction at -40°C. It was successfully opened to traffic in January 2020.