On June 12, excavation broke ground for the inclined shaft of the Zhoujie Tunnel on the Wenshan–Mengzi Railway. This is a key control project for the **commencement of construction of the Wenshan–Mengzi Railway, marking the railway's entry into the substantive construction stage.

The Zhoujie Tunnel is located in Laozhai Township, Mengzi City, at the junction of Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture. The tunnel has a total length of 6,325 meters and a maximum burial depth of 326 meters. Its geology is complex, passing through multiple faults and karst-developed areas, and it crosses beneath a provincial highway, oil and gas pipelines, and residential houses. Construction is extremely difficult, and it is classified as a Grade I high-risk tunnel.

To ensure that construction of the Zhoujie Tunnel starts on schedule, the South Yunnan Railway Construction Command of China Railway Kunming Group organized China Railway 16th Bureau and other participating units to earnestly implement the rapid construction concept, make project management planning solid and detailed, reasonably divide construction units, and organize 102 construction workers and 42 pieces of large machinery to quickly enter the site, starting substantive construction of the tunnel inclined shaft ahead of the original schedule. "Next, we will seize opportunities, strengthen coordination, promote the application of advanced techniques and tooling such as micro-bench excavation, 3D scanning, and hydraulic invert trestles, steadily advance project construction, and make positive contributions to the completion and opening of the Wenshan–Mengzi Railway on schedule," said Huang Haihong, head of the Wenshan–Mengzi Railway project department of China Railway 16th Bureau.

The Wenshan–Mengzi Railway is an important project in China's medium- and long-term railway network plan for the Southwest Border Railway. It has a total length of about 116 kilometers, a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour, and a planned construction period of four and a half years.