According to the draft outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan, in building a transportation corridor network that connects internally and externally, a comprehensive transportation corridor will be built that runs east-west and north-south, ensuring smooth internal and external connectivity, and strengthening the construction of channels into and out of Xinjiang and Tibet, and building external transportation corridors in the northwest, southwest, and northeast, as well as the Maritime Silk Road corridor. A high-quality rapid network will be created, and the formation of a high-speed railway network will be accelerated.

Among the key transportation construction projects, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the coastal high-speed railway, coastal expressway, and riverside high-speed railway will be basically completed, the construction of border highways will be accelerated, and border railways such as the Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway, the Northeast Border Railway, and the Sichuan-Tibet Railway will be built.

Eight rises and eight falls: the world's most difficult 'giant roller coaster'

According to Lin Shijin, deputy chief engineer of China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co., Ltd. in charge of survey and design of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, the Sichuan-Tibet Railway passes through the Hengduan Mountains, represented by the Three Parallel Rivers, and has environmental characteristics such as high altitude and strong tectonic activity, basically covering common engineering geological challenges of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It 'rises eight times and falls eight times' among valleys with an average elevation difference of 2,000 meters, with a cumulative climb of more than 14,000 meters, equivalent to building the world's most technically difficult railway 'giant roller coaster' among the most treacherous and complex high mountain gorges. This is very rare in the history of world railway construction.

In response to the characteristics along the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, experts from China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co., Ltd. have set up dozens of scientific research projects to tackle key problems, and actively organized technical experts to carry out scientific research planning for the 'full life cycle of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway in extreme environments' at three levels: survey and design, engineering construction, and operation and maintenance. Currently, more than 100 million yuan has been invested.