Transportation -- Highway

Having such a vast territory and the world's largest population, China depends on its numerous and complicated highways at all levels crisscrossing the country in a dense network. The hallmark of the modernization of transportation, or even a country, is the expressways. More advantageous for safety, speed, economy, convenience and capacity, these are being developed rapidly in China.

By the end of 2005, the total mileage of all highways in China had already reached 1.9305 million kilometers (1,199,557 miles), carrying a passenger volume of 16.92 billion people a year. With a total of 35,000 kilometers (21,748 miles), the overall length of the expressways in China is the second longest in the world. Almost all Chinese cities, counties and towns are accessible by highways. In 1988, the first expressway (Shanghai City - Jiading County) in China was opened to traffic. Now, 29 provinces have expressways of 500 kilometers (311 miles) or more, and 19 provinces, such as Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei, have expressways more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). Tibet still has no expressways due to its rugged terrain. As the capital of China, Beijing is the starting point of 11 national highways, radiating out to all parts of the country, including cities such as Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin, Jinan, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Taiyuan and Xian. Bridge and tunnel construction, which is absolutely necessary to highway building in some special areas, also has achieved great success. By the end of 2005, there were 336,600 highway bridges. Of these, Runyang and Jiangyin Suspension Bridges over the Yangtze River, in Jiangsu Province, spanning over 1,385 meters (1,515 yards) and 1,490 meters (1,629 yards) respectively, are the third and fourth largest highway bridges in the world.

Huge investments are being made to maintain and afforest the highways. With the increased demands of China's tremendous development the highway system is playing an ever more vital role in China's transportation. Increasing by thousands of kilometers a year, many highways, including roads and expressways, are now in the process of design for construction in the near or far future.