China borders 14 countries and covers roughly 9.6 million square kilometers (3.7. sq mi). When you look at a road map of the country, there is usually too much going on to notice any larger pattern. But there is one. Three of China’s national highways connect at endpoints, forming a closed loop that traces the outer edge of the country almost perfectly.
Highways G219, G228, and G331 join at Dongxing in Guangxi, Dandong in Liaoning, and the Altay region of northern Xinjiang. Together they cover 27,166 kilometers (16,880 miles), more than two-thirds of Earth’s circumference, crossing 17 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions.
Highway
Length (km)
Length (mi)
Start
End
Provinces/Regions
Notable Features
G219
10,065
6,254
Kanas Lake, Xinjiang
Dongxing, Guangxi
Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan, Guangxi
China’s longest highway; Tibetan Plateau above 5,000 m; Mount Kailash; Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon
17 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions
Full perimeter circuit
G219 Takes the Western Route
G219 starts at Kanas Lake in Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang, and ends 10,065 kilometers (6,254 miles) later at Dongxing City on the Vietnamese border in Guangxi, making it China’s longest national highway. The road crosses the Tibetan Plateau at elevations above 5,000 meters (16,404 ft) in multiple places. It passes near Mount Kailash, one of the most sacred peaks in Asia for Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains, traverses the Mount Everest Nature Reserve, and cuts through the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, the deepest river gorge in the world, before eventually dropping south through Yunnan’s subtropical valleys into Guangxi. Some sections in the Tibetan segment go hundreds of kilometers without a single village.
Driving G219 requires a Tibet Travel Permit plus additional authorization in some border areas. The high-altitude passes are generally open from May through September.
G228 Follows the Coastline
Where G219 ends at Dongxing, G228 picks up and runs 7,800 kilometers (4,847 miles) up the entire eastern seaboard to Dandong in Liaoning. The route passes through 10 coastal provinces and municipalities, including Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, and Liaoning. Along the way you pass Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, with its surviving 19th-century colonial architecture, and continue north through Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Qingdao before reaching the quieter northern coast. After the altitude and empty plateau of G219, this section feels like a different country entirely.
G331 Closes the Loop
From Dandong, G331 runs 9,301 kilometers (5,779 miles) west along China’s northern frontier, ending back in the Altay region of Xinjiang where G219 begins. The highway crosses Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Gansu before returning to Xinjiang, passing through the Hulunbuir Grasslands in Inner Mongolia, the Greater Khingan Range, and the edge of the Gobi Desert near Dunhuang in Gansu, where the Mogao Caves hold one of the largest surviving collections of Buddhist art in the world. Fuel stops can be far apart on this section, and the population is sparse enough that some stretches feel genuinely remote.
The full circuit takes roughly 45 to 60 days at a sustained pace.
