The Shiziyang Tunnel is a high-speed railway tunnel under

Shiziyang Shiziyang () or Shizi Channel is the upper channel of the Pearl River estuary. It runs from the confluence of the Dong River and the Pearl River with parts of the Bei River to the Bocca Tigris which separate Lingdingyang the mid channel of the ...

, the northern part of the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all ...

estuary in China.

Route

The 10.8 km long tunnel is part of a -long high-speed line from

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong ...

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major Sub-provincial division, sub-provincial city and one of the Special economic zones of China, special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pea ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. It is designed for speeds of up to 350 km/h (usually 250 km/h in operation) - the fastest underwater tunnel in the world. as well as being China's longest underwater tunnel. This allows rail journeys between Guangzhou and Hong Kong to take only 40 minutes – much faster than the previous 2-hour journey. The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail link is part of a broader expansion of high-speed rail in China; journeys from Beijing to Hong Kong will take only 8 hours.

Construction

Construction began in November 2007, with a budget of CNY2.4 billion; the tunnel was completed in 2011, and passenger services began on 26 December 2011. Unusually, the

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can be designed to bore throu ...

s were designed to be dismantled inside the tunnel.

References

{{coord, 22.86669, 113.55881, dim:10800_type:landmark_region:CN-44, display=title Railway tunnels in China High-speed rail in China Tunnels completed in 2011