China opens world's first desert rail loop in Xinjiang(1/6)

A train runs along the 825-kilometer Hotan-Ruoqiang railway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, June 16, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Wen Xinghua)

The last section of a 2,712-km rail loop line around China's largest desert, the Taklimakan, in Xinjiang was put into operation on Thursday.

A train runs along the 825-kilometer Hotan-Ruoqiang railway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, June 16, 2022. (Photo/China News Service)

File photo shows a train running along the 825-kilometer Hotan-Ruoqiang railway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in a test run. (Photo: China News Service/Wen Xinghua)

File photo shows a train running along the 825-kilometer Hotan-Ruoqiang railway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in a test run. (Photo: China News Service/Wen Xinghua)

File photo shows a train running along the 825-kilometer Hotan-Ruoqiang railway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in a test run. (Photo: China News Service/Wen Xinghua)

The first train of the Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway pulls out of Hotan Railway Station in Hotan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, June 16, 2022. (Photo/China News Service)