The Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway is stimulating industrial restructuring and upgrading in many regions along it. "We plan to establish a camel industry base to attract investment, which will include processing camel meat, hair and dairy products," said Wei. Since the construction of the Baiming Expressway, Mazongshan and the whole of Subei have started industrial restructuring. The newly opened expressway will greatly cut the transport time of these resources to the outside world. Wei said Mazongshan has abundant mineral resources as well as cultural and tourism resources, but poor road conditions have made it difficult and expensive to access these resources. For a long time, the only road connecting Mazongshan to the outside world had been a dirt road, and the town seemed to be located at a dead end. Situated 480 km from the Subei County seat, Mazongshan covers 60,000 square km but has a population of only 13,000. Learning that a new section was to be built, Wei Hong, head of the town, felt excited. The entire Baigeda-Mingshui section of the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway, also called the Baiming Expressway, lies in Mazongshan Town, Subei County of Jiuquan City in Gansu. Li Dunyin, Vice Mayor of Hami, said, "The Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway will make Xinjiang more closely connected with inland areas and significantly stimulate the development of the economy and tourism industry in the areas along it." The trucks entering Xinjiang typically carry raw materials and machines as well as parts and accessories. Now is the harvest season for Hami melons, a kind of honeydew melon produced in Hami City of east Xinjiang, and most of the trucks leaving Xinjiang were carrying these and other fruit and farm produce. "Most of the trucks passing through the toll station are from Tianjin, Hebei and Inner Mongolia," Bai told China Business News. It also provides quick passage from Xinjiang's Khorgos Port to north China's Tianjin Port and reduces the length of the Eurasian Land Bridge linking Tianjin Port with Rotterdam in the Netherlands.Ä«etween the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway's complete opening on July 15 and the morning of July 17, a total of 987 vehicles including 875 trucks entered Xinjiang, while 709 vehicles including 639 trucks exited the region through the Baishanquan toll station, the first such control point along the expressway's Xinjiang section, according to Bai Jianguo, Party secretary of the transport bureau of Hami City in Xinjiang. The expressway will cut nearly 1,300 km off the journey from Beijing to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, compared with traveling via other highways, serving as the fastest and most convenient way to enter Xinjiang from north China by road. It passes cities including Zhangjiakou, Ulanqab, Hohhot, Baotou, Linhe, Ejin Banner, Hami, Turpan and Urumqi. With construction started in September 2012, the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway, or G7, has been built across Beijing and five other provincial-level regions, namely Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. The sections run through the Gobi Desert, which is characterized by drought and other poor natural conditions. The new sections have a combined length of more than 1,200 km-the 930-km Linhe-Baigeda section in Inner Mongolia, the 134-km Baigeda-Mingshui section in Gansu and the 178-km Mingshui-Hami section in Xinjiang. On July 15, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the governments of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gansu Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region jointly announced that the 2,768-km Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway had become fully operational, with three final sections along risky terrain opened to traffic. "After this expressway is open, we can save one or two days and more than 1,000 yuan ($148.37) for every one-way trip to Xinjiang." "We are waiting here to be the first passengers after this expressway is open to traffic," an unnamed truck driver from north China's Hebei Province told China Business News at a toll station on the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway on July 15. A section of the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway in Bayan Nur City, north China Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (XINHUA)
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