By Han Xin, The total length of China’s comprehensive transportation network has exceeded 6 million kilometers, with the operating mileage of the railway network reaching nearly 160,000 kilometers and 4.6 million kilometers of rural roads, according to China’s Ministry of Transport.
In recent years, China has made solid strides in boosting its strength in transportation, striving to make transportation development a pioneer in its modernization drive.
A bridge that sets 10 world records
The newly opened Shenzhen–Zhongshan Link, a massive cross-sea passage in south China’s Guangdong province, has seen impressive traffic figures. It witnessed over 7,000 vehicles in the first hour after it opened to traffic, more than 125,000 in the first day, more than 720,000 in the first week, and more than 3 million in the first month.
This feat showcased China’s technical prowess. The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link starts from Ma’an Island in Zhongshan city, Guangdong province. It begins with the Shenzhong Bridge, which spans 1,666 meters and boasts the world’s highest navigational clearance for a sea-crossing bridge. East of the bridge lies the west artificial island, which is the fastest-built artificial island in the world. Moving ahead, the Shenzhong Tunnel plunges beneath the sea, which is the world’s longest and widest steel-shelled concrete undersea immersed tunnel with the total length of 6.8 kilometers.
Spanning 24 kilometers, the mega project took seven years to complete, featuring two bridges, two artificial islands, an underwater tunnel, and an underwater highway hub interchange. It overcame numerous world-class technical challenges and set 10 world records.
It’s not just about bridges. The Beijing-Urumqi Expressway has become the world’s longest desert-crossing expressway, with a total length of 2,800 kilometers and over 500 kilometers passing through desert and no man’s land. The new Chengdu-Kunming Railway has conquered a series of geological challenges, reducing the travel time between Chengdu and Kunming by about 12 hours. Besides, Qingdao Port in east China’s Shandong province has become fully automated and unmanned.
China is rapidly advancing its infrastructure, improving the scale and quality of its comprehensive transportation network to new heights while also expanding its coverage and accessibility.
By the end of 2023, the operating mileage of China’s railway network amounted to nearly 160,000 kilometers, with the total length of operating high-speed rail tracks reaching 45,000 kilometers, accounting for over two-thirds of the world’s total. The highway network has expanded to nearly 5.44 million kilometers, including 184,000 kilometers of expressways, the longest in the world.
Today, China boasts the world’s largest high-speed rail network, expressway network, and world-class port clusters, with air and sea routes connecting to destinations in every corner of the world.
A port connecting over 200 countries and regions
Since the beginning of 2024, all 20 port areas of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port have been operating at full capacity. In the first eight months of this year, the port handled 26.12 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, up 8.6 percent year-on-year.
Ports serve as key infrastructural facilities for economic development. Today, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port boasts over 300 container routes, connecting more than 600 ports in over 200 countries and regions.
China has world-leading maritime connectivity, establishing sea transport routes with more than 100 countries and regions. China’s civil aviation transportation has ranked second in the world for 19 consecutive years in terms of scale, with an extensive network of air routes reaching worldwide. The China-Europe freight train service reaches over 200 cities across 25 European countries, serving as a steel camel caravan boosting regional trade and economic development.
With different transportation modes working in efficient synergy, China now sees an average of over 160 million cross-regional passenger trips and about 150 million tons of cargo circulation on a daily basis. Its express delivery system can process up to 700 million packages on peak days.
This massive, interconnected comprehensive transportation system, seamlessly linking Chinese domestic and international networks, has injected vitality into China’s economy. It provides a solid foundation for the steady and long-term development of the Chinese economy.
A road that turns a “village on the cliff” into a “village of happiness”
“With the road reaching our doorstep, our villagers have become more confident. In the past five years, we’ve started growing navel oranges, raising mountain goats, and opening guesthouses. The village’s per capita net income has been increasing year after year. Our ‘cliff village’ has truly become a ‘village of happiness’!” said Jilie Ziri, Party chief of Abuluoha village in Butuo county, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, southwest China’s Sichuan province.
Abuluoha village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and bordered by a cliff on the fourth. Building a road to this village was no easy feat.
In an exhibition hall at the village center, a photograph captures a historic moment: a helicopter carrying a large excavator suspended by a long cable, flying steadily.
That was on December 31, 2019. After 20 months of construction, including three tunnel sections and a steel bridge, the road was finally completed. The 65 households in the village no longer need to climb mountains and cliffs to go out. Now, it takes just over 10 minutes to exit the village and two hours to reach the county center. With this, all administrative villages in China with proper conditions have been given access to roads.
From 2014 to 2023, a total of 2.5 million kilometers of rural roads were built or renovated in China, and over 70,600 villages in 821 townships were connected by paved roads.
Chinese modernization is the modernization of a huge population. From rural roads connecting towns and villages to low-fare slow trains, from expanding urban public transportation coverage to promoting barrier-free renovations of transportation facilities, China is committed to ensuring inclusive, basic, equitable, and sustainable public services.
The country is vigorously promoting equal access to basic public services in urban and rural areas, ensuring that residents have access to transportation and share the fruits of transportation development.
