China had 3.48 million kilometers of highways and 45,400 kilometers of expressways in operation by the end of 2006, according to the Ministry of Communications.

 

The total length of highways opened to traffic included 1.55 million kilometers in rural areas, said Minister of Communications Li Shenglin.

 

Last year 340,000 kilometers of highways were built or rebuilt, including 4,460 kilometers of expressways.

 

By the end of 2006, China's railways that opened to traffic totaled 76,600 kilometers in length.

 

The government plans to have 90,000 kilometers of railways in operation by 2010.

 

The country's highways carried 1.84 billion passengers last year, up 8.7 percent year on year. Cargo carried by rail reached 1.46 billion tons, a rise of 8.8 percent year on year.

 

According to the Ministry of Railways, rail passenger turnover hit 662.2 billion person-kilometers last year, 3.8 times the combined figures of the United States and Russia. Rail freight turnover reached 2.87 billion tons last year, about one billion tons more than that of the United States, which ranked the second.

 

The government will spend 256 billion yuan (US$32 billion) on railway construction this year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2007)