There is a popular Chinese saying that goes, "If you want to become rich, build the road first," which shows the important role transportation plays in the development of an economy. With the passage of time, transportation facilities, including highways, railways, waterways, ports, airports and postal routes, are now interwoven like a web that connects the entire world.

China has been weaving this web, and while achievements have been made, it still sees a lot of potential for further advancement.

"China's high-speed railways, roads, bridges, ports and airports have become its name card," Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng said at a press conference in Beijing on September 24. "But we realize clearly that there are still weak areas in our transportation development."

He said infrastructure is still weak in remote and underprivileged areas and although equipment has been modernized, the capacity for research and development needs to be improved. In addition, logistics is not fully developed since cost should be further lowered, while efficiency needs to be improved.

To this end, an outline was released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, China's cabinet, on September 19 to serve the national strategy of building up China's transportation strength.

Three networks, two circles

China will build a safe, convenient, efficient, environmentally friendly and economically sustainable transportation system that features first-class infrastructure, technologies, management models and services, according to the outline. It also said the Chinese transportation system will be in the global forefront by 2050, a goal that will be accomplished in two phases.

From 2020 to 2035, a modern and comprehensive transportation network will be basically completed. By mid-century, China's transportation sector will rank high worldwide in terms of its infrastructure's scale and quality, technologies, innovation capacity, and intelligent and green development. Its safety maintenance, management and service capacity, as well as international competitiveness and influence will also reach higher levels.

Specific objectives are included—there will be three networks and two circles to facilitate the transportation of people and goods.

One of the networks will consist of high-speed railways, expressways and civil aviation. There will also be an improved arterial network composed of regular railways, national highways, waterways, and oil and gas pipelines and an extensive basic network based on provincial highways, rural highways, tributary railways, branch waterways and general aviation.

The two circles will form a rapid service system both for domestic travelers and global logistics flows. In terms of the domestic traffic circle, commuting time is scheduled to be shortened to an hour in metropolitan areas. Travel time within urban agglomerations is expected to be less than two hours, while the time to travel between major cities will be three hours at most. As for the global logistics circle, goods will be delivered in a day within the country, two days to surrounding countries and three days to major cities around the world.

"In some places, these objectives have already been realized, but in other places, there is still a big gap to fill," Li said.

Strong and diversified

The outline also said efforts will be made to improve transportation infrastructure, especially networks that bring cities closer and cover rural areas, encourage the creation of new and specially designed transportation equipment, and upgrade transportation services to make traveling faster and more convenient, and logistics greener and more efficient.

In addition, cutting-edge technology will be developed to advance smart transportation and an emphasis will be placed on high-quality construction and management, workplace safety, and rapid emergency response and relief.

Yu Chunxiao, deputy head of the National Railway Administration, said China will pursue an integrated development of trunk railways, intercity railways, suburban railways and urban rail networks.

As for the railway equipment, he said the development of 30,000-ton heavy haul trains and 250-km-per-hour freight trains will make major breakthroughs, while research on technologies such as the 400-km-per-hour wheel-rail passenger train system and 600-km-per-hour maglev system will be launched. In addition, an inter-region passenger service system will be built, relying mainly on high-speed railway transportation that is very efficient and has large capacity.

"We will accelerate the construction of rail links to ports and railway sidings to logistics parks and large industrial and mining enterprises to increase the railway department's share in the bulk cargo and middle- and long-distance goods transportation market," Yu said.

According to Dong Zhiyi, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, among the 10 major aviation hubs in China, eight made it to the global top 50 by passenger traffic in 2018. The Beijing Capital International Airport is now the second largest airport in the world with an annual passenger throughput of over 100 million, next only to the U.S. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Since 2016, China has pushed forward the construction of three world-class airport clusters in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Programs have also been implemented to build five international aviation hubs in Urumqi (in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northwest), Kunming (in Yunnan Province in the southwest), Harbin (in Heilongjiang Province in the northeast), Chengdu (in Sichuan Province in the southwest) and Chongqing (in the southwest), and to transform Zhengzhou (in central China's Henan Province) into an international air freight hub.

"To serve the opening-up strategy, we will speed up the construction of world-class airport clusters and international aviation hubs, and build a multi-dimensional and connected transportation network covering the whole world," Dong said.

Dai Yingjun, deputy head of the State Post Bureau, said since 2012, the postal industry in China has seen historic progress. The growth rate of the whole industry is among the fastest in the world. Notably, the total volume of the express delivery business ranks first in the world, with nearly 200 million parcels delivered every day, contributing to more than 50 percent of the world's growth.

"We will strengthen the basic network, popularize postal services, expand capacity and improve efficiency, build an international logistics system and pursue a sustainable industrial ecosystem," Dai said.

On October 9, the Ministry of Transport announced that 13 areas, including Xiongan New Area in north China's Hebei Province, have been designated as the first pilots to implement the outline.

"The country is committed to promoting the shift of transportation development from a pursuit of speed and scale to quality and efficiency, from separate systems to a comprehensive network, and from input-driven to innovation-led," Li said.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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