Tour guide Dilinur Tursunjan, 26, from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, said she is looking forward to visiting her friends in Taiwan and seeing the place in person.

Dilinur served a family from Taiwan who were touring northern Xinjiang in October last year and southern Xinjiang in March. After spending almost a month together, they have established an emotional link "even closer than friendship", she said.

Recently, a video of Dilinur introducing the Tianshan Shengli Tunnel to the family went viral, receiving millions of views and likes on social media platforms.

"Because the people need such a well-traveled road, our motherland can make high mountains give way, and rivers bow down. It is not that piercing through the Tianshan Mountains is easy, but that on the other side of Tianshan lie the people," Dilinur said in the video.

Her comments became a hot topic for days, touching a lot of netizens.

The Tianshan Mountains, stretching 2,500 kilometers, separate northern and southern Xinjiang. The 22.13-km tunnel, the world's longest expressway tunnel, opened to traffic in December 2025. It shortens what was once a three-hour mountain drive to just 20 minutes.

Dilinur told them that constructors braved an altitude of 4,000 meters, overcoming not only the frigid, oxygen?deficient environment, but also complex geological conditions, where hazards such as collapses, rock bursts, and water inrushes could occur at any time. Yet Chinese builders, applying a number of world?class innovative technologies, successfully drilled through the tunnel in just 52 months.

"I'm deeply impressed by the tunnel's story when searching for materials. I'm very proud of this mega project, so all of the words are from my heart," she said.