South China's Guangdong Province plans to spend 290 billion yuan (about US$36 billion) on building 25,000-km highways, including 2,000 km of expressways, in the coming five years, according to the provincial communication authorities.

Upon completion, the planned projects will bring the total length of the province's highways that open to traffic to 140,000 km, including 5,000 km of expressways, by the end of 2010.

This year, Guangdong will invest 33.25 billion yuan in highway construction. A total of 298 km of expressway is expected to be built within the year.

According to the plan, by the end of 2010, an expressway network hubs covering Guangzhou and Shenzhen cities will be completed. Guangdong Province will be linked with each neighboring province with at least two expressways and high-grade highways will link all the province's cities, counties and rural areas together.

By the end of last year, Guangdong had 115,000 km of highways that opened to traffic, including 3,140 km of expressways, which ranked the second in China. The density of highways reached 64.78 km for per hundred square kilometers in the area.

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2006)