China's second expressway linking Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with Beijing fully opened on Wednesday as the fastest passage to link the northeastern, northern and northwestern parts of the nation, the Ministry of Transport said.

The 2,822-kilometer Beijing-Xinjiang expressway passes six provincial regions, including the capital, Hebei, Shanxi and Gansu provinces, and the Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions.

Compared with the first expressway linking Urumqi and Beijing, the new route cuts 1,300 km of road distance between the two cities.

As the world's longest desert-crossing expressway, more than 500 km of the road passes through deserts where no one lives, which posed challenges in construction.