The photo shows construction workers operating inside the newly holed-through Xinbin Tunnel.

At 9:48 a.m. on August 25, outside Yongling Town in Xinbin Manchu Autonomous County, Fushun City, a huge blast broke the early-autumn tranquility of the mountains.

The sound came from the Xinbin Tunnel of the Shenyang-Baihe High-Speed Railway under construction below the hillside. After the blast hazard was cleared, at the 4,500-meter point inside the tunnel, an excavator extended its long bucket and worked up and down until the last meter of rock was pierced through, and a shaft of light burst through the dust.

"The Xinbin Tunnel of the Shenyang-Baihe High-Speed Railway is holed through!" At 9:58, Wang Yongzhu, project manager of China Railway 19th Bureau Group, announced the good news in a loud voice. Instantly, huge cheers and joyful music rang out together, shaking the valley.

For this moment, the builders of the Shenyang-Baihe High-Speed Railway had waited and fought for 875 days.

The Xinbin Tunnel, with a total length of 10.2 kilometers, is the first high-risk tunnel and a key control project on the entire Shenyang-Baihe High-Speed Railway line, and also the longest tunnel in Liaoning section of the railway. It is located in the remaining ranges of the Changbai Mountains, where the terrain rises and falls sharply, the groundwater system channels are relatively abundant, and there are multiple faults and shallow cover, making the geological conditions complex. For the builders, the project is highly difficult to construct, carries high safety risks, and faces enormous pressure to be completed on schedule.

"Pressure is also motivation. We joined forces with the participating construction units to set up a research team, repeatedly invited well-known tunnel experts to provide on-site guidance and verification in complex and difficult sections, and adopted many targeted measures to ensure the smooth progress of construction and the quality of the project," introduced Wang Jiang, Party branch secretary of the Fushun Command of the Beijing-Harbin High-Speed Railway Co., Ltd.

Completing the task with high quality made the frontline employees of the participating units beam with joy. China Railway 19th Bureau Group is the contractor for the Xinbin Tunnel. In front of the display board at the tunnel entrance, Wang Zhe, the project's chief engineer, proudly explained the key and difficult construction tasks: "During construction, a number of innovative methods were used to achieve advance forecasting, and measurement methods such as 3D cross-section scanning were used to collect changes in the rock strata around the tunnel in real time; in order to reduce the impact on the surrounding environment, all sewage during construction was discharged only after purification reached the standards."

"Everyone's efforts have not been in vain; we have not let down the trust of the people of Liaoning!" Wang Zhe's high-profile "declaration" drew another round of applause from his colleagues.

The main line of the Shenyang-Baihe High-Speed Railway starts from Shenyang North Station, passes through seven cities including Shenyang and Fushun, and ends at Changbaishan Station in Jilin Province, with a total length of 430 kilometers. Once completed and open to traffic, Liaoning will achieve high-speed rail access in every city. "As of now, 23 tunnels in the Liaoning section have been holed through, and 65% of the total project volume has been completed. With the smooth holing-through of the Xinbin Tunnel, the project will successively enter the track slab laying stage across the entire line," said Wang Jiang.