In pics: highways in Taklimakan Desert in China's Xinjiang

Cars run on the first highway in Taklimakan Desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 12, 2018. The first highway across the Taklimakan, running 522 kilometers from Lunnan in the north, to Minfeng county in the south, was opened to traffic in 1995. The second north-south road across the desert opened to traffic about a decade ago, cutting the distance between the two important regional cities of Hotan and Aral by 550 km and the travel time by about seven hours. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge)