Alashankou Railway Station

Alashankou

View of the station from the outside in 2006
Location  China
Coordinates 45°10′13″N 82°34′13″E / 45.17028°N 82.57028°E / 45.17028; 82.57028Coordinates: 45°10′13″N 82°34′13″E / 45.17028°N 82.57028°E / 45.17028; 82.57028
Line(s) Lanxin Railway Northern Xinjiang branch
Services
Preceding station   China Railway   Following station
Wulandabusen
towards Ürümqi
Northern Xinjiang Railway
towards Aktogay

Alashankou railway station (Chinese: 阿拉山口站; pinyin: Ālāshānkǒu zhàn), also known as Alataw Pass railway station (also spelt Alatau and Ala Tau), is a railway station in Börtala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Located on the Chinese side of the Dzungarian Gate pass through the Dzungarian Alatau mountain range at the 2358.376 km point of Lanxin Railway, it is the last station on the Northern Xinjiang branch of the Lanxin Railway before entering Kazakhstan. For the first twenty-plus years of its history it was the only railway port of entry in western China; during this time, the volume of international rail freight going through the Alashankou port of entry grew from 160,000 tons in 1991 to 15,160,000 tons in 2011.[1]

In another report (not quite consistent with the previous one), the volume of rail freight crossing the border at Alashankou during the first 10 months of 2011 were reported as 8,921,000, which was said to be a 12.8 increase over the previous year. The volume of traffic, measured by weight, going from Kazakhstan to China is much higher than from China to Kazakhstan (7,412,000 tons vs. 1,509,000 tons). The main commodities that went from Kazakhstan to China via Alashankou were iron ore, high-carbon ferrochrome, wheat and steel. Among the goods shipped from China to Kazakhstan, the main groups were steel (in particular, steel pipes), electronics and tomato paste.[2]

There is also a passenger train, Almaty-Ürümqi, that crosses the border at Alashankou.

It is expected that the second railway port of entry on the Sino-Kazakh border, at Khorgas, will open in the late 2012.[1]

See also

Notes

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  1. 1 2 "新疆霍尔果斯火车站获批成立 年底有望通车". 中国新闻网. 23 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "前10个月新疆阿拉山口口岸铁路货运增长12.8%". 中商情报网. 23 November 2012.
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