Glittering highways transform the nation
On October 31, 1988, China's first expressway linking downtown Shanghai with its suburban district of Jiading opened. At the time, very few Chinese families had cars.
Today China has built an expressway network of more than 160,000 kilometers, the longest in the world, covering 99 percent of cities with a population of over 200,000 people.
Here are some key newly opened highways and those under construction across the country.
The construction of the expressways along the north bank of the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges area in Yichang, Hubei Province, was finished in April and will soon be opened to traffic.
The 56-kilometer-long Shanhai Expressway, which opened on March 26, crosses China’s southern Hainan Island from Wuzhishan City to Sanya.
The Yangbao Mountain Bridge, with a span of 650 meters, was connected on March 27. Part of the Guiyang-Huangping Expressway in southwestern Guizhou Province, the bridge is expected to open in June.
Workers maintain the greenbelts along the side of the Shiqian-Yuping Expressway in the Jiangjun Mountain area in Guizhou Province. The section will open to traffic in July.
The Beijing-Dezhou Expressway will link the Daxing International Airport and Dezhou in Shandong Province. Its first phase, about 87 kilometers long, is part of the key transportation system of Xiong’an New Area and will be opened this month.
