The Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway opens on June 16. XINHUA
Train 5818 slowly pulled out from Hotan Station in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and galloped toward its destination on June 16. This marked the official opening of the Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway.
6月16日，5818次首发列车从新疆和田站缓缓驶出，朝着目的地疾驰而去。这标志着和若铁路（和田市至若羌县）正式通车运营。
As soon as Kurbanhan got into the carriage, she called her family. The 26-year-old Uygur girl couldn’t hide her excitement when she got onto the train for the first time. Kurbanhan’s home lies in the countryside of Yutian County, over 1,000 kilometers from Urumqi. In 2013, in order to get to her university in Urumqi, she had to spend two days riding in a pickup truck from her home to the county, and another four-hour drive to Hotan before finally taking the train to Urumqi.
库尔班罕一上车就给家人打了电话，第一次坐上（开往家门口的）列车，这个26岁的维吾尔族姑娘难掩兴奋。库尔班罕的家在于田县达里雅布依乡，距离乌鲁木齐1000多公里。2013年，为了去乌鲁木齐上大学，库尔班罕不得不坐着皮卡车，花了两天时间从家里到县城，接着又坐4个小时的汽车赶到和田市，才终于坐上去乌鲁木齐的火车。
The 825-kilometer line links the city of Hotan with the county of Ruoqiang in southern Xinjiang.
和若铁路西起新疆和田地区和田市，东至巴音郭楞蒙古自治州若羌县，全长825公里。
It is designed for trains running up to 120 kilometers per hour, cutting travel time between Hotan and Ruoqiang to 11.5 hours.
这条铁路时速高达120公里，将和田市至若羌县的旅程缩短至11.5小时。
It is the last section of the 2,712-km-long loop line circling the Taklimakan Desert, China’s largest desert. Its completion forms the world’s first railway loop circling a desert.
环中国最大沙漠塔克拉玛干沙漠的铁路环线全长2712公里，和若铁路补齐了环线的“最后一块拼图”，世界首条环沙漠铁路线建成。
Two passenger trains are scheduled each day, as well as eight freight trains that will transport cotton, walnuts, dates and other commodities to the rest of China. “The line brings railway service to new places in southern Xinjiang, boosting socio-economic development and promoting rural vitalization in the region,” China Daily noted.
和若铁路开通运营后，铁路部门将安排开行旅客列车2列和货物列车8列，沿线的棉花、核桃、红枣等商品可通过铁路直通运达内地。《中国日报》报道指出:“和若铁路结束了南疆多地不通火车的历史，促进了地区经济社会发展，绘就了乡村振兴之路。”
About 65 percent of the new line – 534 kilometers – is in the sand and storm zone, which made construction tremendously difficult. According to China Daily, since starting in December 2018, more than 20,000 builders have worked hard in extreme weather, with frequent sandstorms and temperatures as high as 42 C and severe cold as low as -25 C.
和若铁路有534公里分布在风沙区域，占线路总长的65%，铁路建设因此面临巨大困难。据《中国日报》报道，自2018年12月开工建设以来，和若铁路的两万多名建设者在极端天气下辛勤工作。沙漠中沙尘暴频发，高温可达42摄氏度，严寒又可低至零下25摄氏度。
In areas with strong wind and shifting sand dunes, designers built bridges to allow the sand and wind to pass beneath them, reducing potential harm to the rail line. Grass, trees and shrubs have also been planted along the rail line as barricades against sand. “Sand control comes before railway construction,” Wang Jinzhong, an engineer on the railway, told China Daily.
在风沙大、沙丘动态迁移严重的地段，建设者们修建“过沙桥”，让风沙从桥下穿过，降低沿线风沙对线路的潜在危害。和若铁路沿线还种植草、乔木、灌木等，成为防沙护路的屏障。铁路工程师王尽忠在接受《中国日报》采访时表示：“防沙比修筑铁路更重要。”
Workers created straw grids near the railway line and planted nearly 13 million shrubs and trees, Wang said.
王尽忠说，和若铁路的建设者在沿线修建草方格，种植乔木和灌木近1300万株。
“Tall trees are planted along the outer areas to reduce wind speeds, while shrubs have been planted along the inner areas of the railway to fix the sand problem,” Wang added.
王尽忠补充道，“铁路外侧高大的乔木能降低风速，靠近铁路的灌木则固定流沙。”
以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报》高一877期
