G6 Beijing–Lhasa Expressway
G6 signage leaving Beijing
|Length:||3,710 km (2,310 mi)
Length when complete.
|East end:||Madian Bridge, North 3rd Ring Road, Beijing|
|West end:||Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region (when complete)
Chaidamu Road, Xining, Qinghai (current)
The Beijing-Tibet Expressway (Chinese: 北京－西藏高速公路; pinyin: Běijīng－Xīzàng gāosù gōnglù), commonly abbreviated to Jingzang Expressway (Chinese: 京藏高速), also known as Beijing-Lhasa Expressway (Jingla Expressway; Chinese: 京拉高速公路) or China National Expressway 6, is part of the Chinese national expressway network and is planned to connect the nation's capital, Beijing, to the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Lhasa.
It passes through a total of seven China's administrative regions, including the Beijing municipality, the province of Hebei, the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, and finally the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Beginning from Beijing and driving southwest to Lhasa, The expressway runs approximately 3,710 kilometres (2,310 miles) through Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai, for a total of seven provincial-level divisions.[clarification needed] Excluding the two terminal points, it passes through the major cities of Zhangjiakou, Jining District, Hohhot, Bayan Nur, Wuhai, Yinchuan, Wuzhong, Baiyin, Lanzhou, Xining and Golmud.[clarification needed]
As of August 2010, just over fifty percent of the expressway is open to traffic, which mainly comprises the stretch between Beijing and Xining. Like China National Highway 109 and the Qingzang railway, it is expected to pass west through Golmud before heading southwest into Tibet and Lhasa. Because of climatic conditions, this stretch of the expressway does not yet have a construction timetable.
The G6 merges with the G7 in Hebei and does not split until around a third of the way through Inner Mongolia.
- Badaling Expressway (part of the G6 in Beijing)
- Expressways of China
- Jingzhang Expressway (part of the G6 in Hebei)
- G6 京藏高速 (Chinese)
- "Get your kicks on Route G6", The Economist, Dec 22 2012 http://www.economist.com/news/china/21568755-china-building-motorway-across-tibetan-plateau-some-reaching-lhasa-road