China has made concerted efforts in recent years to construct
highways in its western region. Weng Mengyong, vice minister of
communications -- the ministry responsible for land transportation
-- said that the total length of superhighway in the western region
exceeded 7,000 kilometers as of the end of 2003, and would exceed
10,000 kilometers by the end of 2005.
In the country's northwest, the Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region has a total of 86,000 kilometers of
highways, according to the regional communications department.
The department reports that investment in highway construction
has increased rapidly, from 3.0 billion yuan (US$360 million) in
2001 to 12.1 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in 2004.
Xinjiang built a total of 6,500 kilometers of highways in rural
areas last year, adding 257 villages to the region's highway
networks and benefiting 2.5 million people.
In October 2004, a 4,395-kilometer-long major national highway
linking the New Silk Road to the Asian highway network was
completed. This reduced the travel time from Urumqi, the capital of
Xinjiang, to Lianyungang, a port city in eastern
Jiangsu
Province, from more than two weeks to just 50 hours.
During the next two decades, Xinjiang will be investing a total
of 200 billion yuan (US$24.1 billion) to build up its major highway
networks, culminating in what is called as the New Silk Road.
The total length of highways nationwide is now 1.9 million
kilometers, and superhighways extend for some 34,200
kilometers.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn February 16, 2005)
