Highways
The building of highways is seen as key to accelerating infrastructure construction. In 2003, completed investment in highway construction was 350 billion yuan and 219 key highway projects progressed, focusing mainly on the five north-south and seven east-west national arterial highways as well as highways in western China and in rural areas. By the end of 2004, the total length of highways open to traffic reached 1.871 million km, including 34,300 km of expressways up to advanced modern transportation standard, ranking second in the world. The nation's highway density has now reached 19.5 km/100 sq km.
With the completion in 2008 of the five north-south and the seven east-west national arterial highways, totaling 35,000 km, Beijing and Shanghai will be linked by major highways, chiefly expressways, to the capitals of all provinces and autonomous regions of China, creating highway connections between over 200 cities.
With the completion in 2008 of the five north-south and the seven east-west national arterial highways, totaling 35,000 km, Beijing and Shanghai will be linked by major highways, chiefly expressways, to the capitals of all provinces and autonomous regions of China, creating highway connections between over 200 cities.
Railways
On a global basis, China's rail transport volume is one of the world's largest, having six percent of the world's operating railways, and carrying 25 percent of the world's total railway workload. China also leads in terms of the growth rate of transport volume and in the efficient use of transport equipment.
On a global basis, China's rail transport volume is one of the world's largest, having six percent of the world's operating railways, and carrying 25 percent of the world's total railway workload. China also leads in terms of the growth rate of transport volume and in the efficient use of transport equipment.
Since 1988, train speed has been raised significantly five times, across some 17,000 km of track. The top speed of express trains increased from 120 km to 160 km per hour, and passenger trains can reach maximum speed of 200 km per hour on some sections of the arterial railways.
Ports
In port construction, China has especially strengthened the container transport system, concentrating on the construction of a group of deep-water container wharves at Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen, and thus laying the foundations for China's container hubs.
The coal transportation system has been further strengthened with the construction of a number of coal transport wharves. In addition, wharves handling crude oil and iron ore imports have been reconstructed or expanded. At the end of 2004, China's coastal ports had over 2,500 berths of medium size or above, of which 650 were 10,000-ton-class berths; their handling capacity was 61.5 million standard containers for the year, ranking first in the world. Freight volumes handled by some large ports exceed 100 million tons a year; and the Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Dalian have been listed among the world's top 50 container ports.
Ports
In port construction, China has especially strengthened the container transport system, concentrating on the construction of a group of deep-water container wharves at Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen, and thus laying the foundations for China's container hubs.
The coal transportation system has been further strengthened with the construction of a number of coal transport wharves. In addition, wharves handling crude oil and iron ore imports have been reconstructed or expanded. At the end of 2004, China's coastal ports had over 2,500 berths of medium size or above, of which 650 were 10,000-ton-class berths; their handling capacity was 61.5 million standard containers for the year, ranking first in the world. Freight volumes handled by some large ports exceed 100 million tons a year; and the Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Dalian have been listed among the world's top 50 container ports.
Civil aviation
At the end of 2004, China had 133 airports for civil flights. In 2004, the turnover of airfreight reached 7.18 billion ton-km, the passenger turnover was 178.2 billion person-km, and the volume of freight traffic 2.767 million tons. China had a total of 1,279 civil flight routes, 1,035 of them domestic routes reaching all large and medium-sized cities, and 244 of them international, connecting China with more than 70 cities overseas.
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