On July 16, Chinese constructors drilled through the Tongda Tunnel on the Yuxi-Mohan section of China-Laos Railway. Designed by China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group and constructed by China Railway No.5 Engineering Group, the tunnel was finally completed after over four years of endeavor, pushing the progress bar of tunnel construction on the Yuxi-Mohan section to 95 percent. 

Spanning a length of 11,298 meters, the Tongda Tunnel is located at the junction of Yuanjiang County and Mojiang County in Yunnan Province. A key control project on the entire Yuxi-Mohan section, the tunnel is one of the 15 tunnels measuring over 10,000 meters long. With the maximum depth of 745 meters and the minimum 15 meters, the tunnel is a high-risk project as the soil is prone to massive gushes of water and has high ground temperature, weathered rocks and alteration zones. (By Tan Wenfeng, He Zengwang, Wu Rongbing)