Guang'an Avenue (Guangqumen to Guang'anmen) which runs from east to west across the center of Beijing was opened to traffic on July 5 morning.

Following the Fourth Ring Road and Beijing section of Beijing-Kaifeng Expressway it is the third trunk road of Beijing opened within a month's time. This can not only help improve the road network structure in the city's downtown area but also serve as a new starting point for the construction and development in the southern zone of Beijing.

Present at the opening ceremony are Jia Qinglin, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, and Liu Qi, Mayor of Beijing.

With an investment of 1.15 billion yuan the 6.2-km-long Guang'an Avenue, one of the urban trunk roads, has a designed traffic speed of 60 kms per hour. This will help relieve the traffic burden in southern part of Beijing, as it will, as predicted, draw 20 percent of the traffic flow over from another avenue in this area. And by the way with its special lane marked out for public transportation it will help raise the traffic capacity by 20 percent.

Along the Guang'an Avenue were mostly living quarters built scores of years ago with backward traffic facilities and civil installations which had seriously restricted the development in the southern area of Beijing. The Municipal government, in order to stage a development in this area for the benefit of the people, has invested heavily for the construction of the road. And in the meanwhile it has laid eight types of pipelines of water, electricity, gas, heat, totaling 80 kilometers to benefit the economic development in this area.

(People's Daily 07/06/2001)