China opened the Tianshan Shengli tunnel on Friday in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. At 22.13 kilometers, it is the world's longest expressway tunnel. It runs beneath the Tianshan mountain range in northwest China. The tunnel cuts what was a long and tricky mountain trip from several hours to about 20 minutes, according to state media. Song Hailiang, chairman of the China Communications Construction Company, said, "It is the longest expressway tunnel in the world and has the deepest vertical shaft for a highway tunnel." This tunnel is part of the new G0711 Urumqi–Yuli expressway, which also became fully operational on the same day, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. This expressway links city clusters in northern and southern Xinjiang, crossing the Tianshan mountains that stretch about 2,500 kilometers. It separates Urumqi, the provincial capital in the north, and Korla, the largest city in the south. Thanks to the new expressway, travel time between Urumqi and Korla has been cut from about seven hours to nearly three hours. The entire 324.7-kilometer expressway took five years to build. It involved a total investment of 46.7 billion yuan, or around USD 6.63 billion, according to official figures.