About 1,359 kilometers of expressway in Shandong Province had been put into use by the end of 1999, an official from this eastern Chinese province announced recently.

Zhou Qiutian, director of the provincial communication bureau, said that his province has spent over 30 billion yuan (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) on building highways in the past two years.

The expressways, which are all in good quality, have formed a criss-crossing network with the provincial capital of Jinan at the center.