Transport in China

BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- China has announced a plan to organize a bigger transport ministry, expected to improve efficiency and avoid traffic chaos like that caused by the snow havoc before this year's Spring Festival.

The following are basic information about the means of transport the new ministry will cover, including road, air and water transit. It is not that strong to incorporate railways.

ROADS

China has 3.57 million kilometers of roads. As of the end of 2007, there were 53,600 km of expressways, the second largest amount in the world after the United States, which has 89,000 km.

There were 21 provincial regions with expressway networks exceeding 1,000 km. Henan and Shandong had more than 4,000 km of expressway each, while Jiangsu and Guangdong each had 3,000 to 4,000 km.

From 2002 to 2007, China built 28,000 km of expressways. Last year alone, the length built and opened stood at 8,300 km, more than the total length of expressways in Japan (7,000 km). China plans to build at least 5,000 km more this year and aims for a total length of 85,000 km by 2020.

Rural roads have reached 88 percent of all administrative villages and 98.5 percent of rural towns. Last year, 423,000 km of rural roads were built or upgraded.

Medog in the southeastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region is the last county in China without a highway; construction of one is scheduled this year.

AVAITION

In 2002, the government merged the nine largest airlines into three regional groups based in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, respectively: Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.

Air China and Hong Kong's leading carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways, hold stakes of about 17.5 percent in each other to improve efficiency and international route coverage.

Last year, 148 mainland airports handled 387.59 million passengers and 8.61 million tons of cargo and mail, up 16.8 percent and 14.3 percent year-on-year, respectively, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation.

Beijing Capital International Airport, the country's largest and busiest, handled 53.47 million passengers last year, putting it among the world's 10 busiest.

Its new Terminal 3, a major expansion project undertaken in preparation for an anticipated surge in passengers during the Olympics, had its first commercial flight after opening on Feb. 29.

With a floor space of 986,000 square meters -- more than double the total area of the first two terminals -- the new building could be the largest of its kind in the world, said construction manager Fan Jun.

The airport is expected to receive about 5.56 million people during the Olympic Games in August.

China is also upgrading several standby airports near Beijing for the Olympics by renovating terminals, enlarging tarmacs, lengthening runways and improving services.

PORTS

China has more than 1,400 ports with 35,000 berths, including 1,200 berths that accommodate 10,000-deadweight ton ships. It has 14 ports with an annual throughput of 100 million tons each. No other country has more such ports.

The cargo throughput of Shanghai, China's largest harbor, reached 560 million tons in 2007, ranking first in the world for the third straight year. It now has 42 20-foot-equivalent unit piers and routes to more than 300 ports worldwide.