China now has 65,000km of highway!

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The Ministry of Communications recently announced that China now has 65,000km of highways across the nation, making it the second largest highway network in the world after the United States.

Xinhua has more details:

China reported 65,000 kilometers of highways designed for fast traffic by the end of 2009, second only to the United States, said Li Shenglin, Minister of Communications, on Friday.

China opened 4,719 kilometers of expressways in 2009 and launched construction of 16,000 kilometers of expressways last year as a result of increased investment in infrastructure, Li said at a national work meeting in Beijing.

According to the strategic plan for highway development in 2005,by 2020, China will establish a national highway network, totaling100,000 kilometers, about the length in the United States today.

The network could be achieved ahead of time based on the current development speed, Li said.

China has maintained its second place in the world in terms of expressway lengths since 2001.

China has some of the nicest, smoothest, emptiest highways in the world, with most of them being brand spanking new and the majority of people preferring to travel by rail on inter-city journies means that the highways really are just open flat roads that are to be enjoyed. Of course there are the odd exceptions, such as the Jinan-Beijing highway which is always heavily crowded and with only two lanes its very dangerous too. Speed limits on the highways are set at 110kph, but with speed cameras being well marked its always safe to go over the limit and scrub the speed off as you see the signs.