China repaves major road that links Xinjiang, Tibet

Repaving work on the Xinjiang section of the Xinjiang-Tibet National Road, the highest traversable road in the world, will be completed next month, local transportation authorities said Wednesday.

The repaving, the first in the road's 50-year history, involves replacing the road's gravel surface with asphalt concrete, said Ma Zhixin, deputy head of the road administration bureau of Yecheng county.

The repaving began in September 2010 and cost 3 billion yuan (476 million U.S. dollars), said Ma, who is also director of the project's construction headquarters.

The 2,143-km Xinjiang-Tibet National Road runs along the southwestern border of China. It starts from Yecheng county in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region and ends in Lhatse in the Tibet autonomous region. The Xinjiang section is 654.8 km in length.