The Ministry of Railway has recently approved the building of two railways to promote this opening-front Fujian Province's economy.
Fujian, in southeast China, now has only three railways, totalling 1200 km, or 0.35 km for every 10 thousand people, much lower than that of national standard of 0.54 km.
The 277-km Wenfu Railway, which connects the neigboring Zhejiang Province, one of the two and costing 6.2 billion yuan (747 million US dollars), is to be constructed in early 2002. The 325-km Ganglong Railway, which connects Jiangxi Province, the other and costing 8 billion yuan (964 million US dollars), is to be completed at the end of 2004, according to a local railway official.
The completion of the two new railways will fundamentally change Fujian's backward state in railway transport, experts said.