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China owns fairly complete
and perfect transportation system, including airport and seaport
facilities equipped with advanced technologies, highways radiating
in all directions, convenient railway networks, as well as many
important inland waterways, basically forming a fast-way framework
for passenger transport and freight transport centered on Beijing,
Shanghai and Guangzhou. In 2003, circulation of passengers
throughout the country totally amounted to 1381.1 billion
person-kilometers and the cargo circulation amounted to 5385.9
billion ton-kilometers in all.
1. Highway
China has always been taking
construction of highways as one of the important contents in terms
of accelerating construction of the infrastructure. In the first
nine months of 2003, an accumulative total investment of 280.68
billion yuan was put into construction of China’s infrastructure,
rising 21.4% as compared with the same period of last year. As of
the end of 2003, mileage open to traffic throughout China had
amounted to 1.8098 million kilometers, of which mileage of the
expressways representing the modern transportation development level
amounted to 29.7 thousand kilometers, leaping to the second place in
the world. Meanwhile, the country has quickened the construction of
highways in central and western regions, thus greatly improving the
highway conditions in these regions. At present, the density of the
nation-wide highway network has amounted to 17.7 kilometers /
hundred square kilometers.
75% of the arterial national
highways composed of 12 high-level highways with a total length of
35 thousand kilometers crossing the east and west parts and the
north and south borders has been completed, with about 20% being
under construction. By 2008, a network of arterial national highways
in China will be completely constructed. By then, Beijing, Shanghai
and all other province-level municipalities, provincial capitals and
capitals of the autonomous regions will be connected by the
high-level highways dominated by expressways, making the total
number of cities to be connected to reach more than 200.
2. Railway
By the end of 2003, the
total operating mileage of the nation-wide railways amounted to 73
thousand kilometers, of which mileage of the double-tracking
railways amounted to 22.6 thousand kilometers and that of the
electric railways to 17 thousand kilometers.
Railway transportation has
always been the main force in China’s transportation industry. In
2003, the railway passenger circulation registered 478.9 billion
person-kilometers and the freight circulation registered 1724.7
billion ton-kilometers. At present, China’s railway transportation
accounts for 6% of the world total railway operating mileage, but
with the completion of 25% of the world railway workload, becoming
one of the biggest countries completing the amount of the world
railway transportation. China is also a country with its
transportation amount growing the fastest and its use of
transportation equipment the most efficient.
The Qinghai-Tibet railway,
at the highest sea level in the world and with a total length of
1142 kilometers, will be completed by 2006. Canton-Hainan railway,
the first railway spanning the strait in China, was open to traffic
on January 7, 2003. The Canton-Hainan railway starts at the city of
Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province, through Leizhou Peninsula and
across Qiongzhou Strait, and reaches the existing railways in Chahe
in the west of Hainan Province and ends at Sanya. The total length
is 345 kilometers.
3. Waterways
China’s waterway
transportation includes deep-sea transport and inland water
transport, centralizing at east coastal areas and in the south
areas. In 2003, the freight circulation of the waterway
transportation amounted to 2871.6 billion ton-kilometers, topping
railway transport and highway transport.
The mileage of China’s
inland water lanes is 124000 kilometers, of which over 7800
kilometers are for the navigation of thousand-tonnage vessels, with
the main inland water lanes including the Yangtze River, the Pearl
River and the Heilong River. There are over 8000 berths at the
inland water ports and docks, of which over 40 berths are for
10-thousand-tonnage vessels. Important river ports include
Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Harbin.
Along the coastal areas in
China, there are over 60 seaports, with the possession of over 3800
berths for production use and 700 berths for 10-thousadn-tonnage
vessels. The volume of freight handled reached 1.965 billion tons in
2003. In 2003, the main ports with a volume of freight handled
exceeding 100 million tons include Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, Tianjin, Qingdao, Dalian, Qinhuangdao and Shenzhen. In
2003, volume of freight handled of the main coastal ports amounted
to 2011260000 tons, rising 344980000 tons over last year.
Construction of China’s
coastal ports is focused on the transportation system like coal,
container, imported iron ore, foodstuff, land and island ro-ro and
deep water outbound courses, with the construction of container
transport system being specially strengthened. Efforts have been
intensified by the government in the construction of a number of
deep water container docks at Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai,
Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen, laying the foundation for the formation
of China’s hub container ports. Construction of coal transportation
system has been further strengthened and a number of docks have been
set up for the loading and discharging of coal. Meanwhile, a number
of docks have been transformed and extended for the import of crude
oil and iron ore. In 2003, the whole country fulfilled a volume of
containers handled reaching 47350000 TCU, rising 35.4% over last
year. Of which the coastal ports fulfilled 44520000 TCU, rising
36.7%. In 2003, 8 ports with their volume of container handled
exceeding 1 million TCU are Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin,
Ningbo, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Dalian.
4. Civil Aviation
By the end of 2003, number
of air routes for regular airliners of CAAC reached 1155. Of which
the domestic lines reached 961, with a passage to 130 cities; the
international lines reached 194, connected to 62 cities of 33
countries. The mileage of the air lines reached 1.7495 million
kilometers. Domestic airports open to traffic reached 126. Number of
civil aeroplanes reached 1190, with the completion of airway cargo
transportation reaching 5.79 billion ton-kilometers throughout the
year and the completion of passenger transportation reaching 126.3
billion person-kilometers and the volume of cargo transportation
reaching 2.19 million tons.
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