Yunnan Speeds up Expressway ConstructionYunnan, a province with 97 percent of its land covered by mountains, will build eight roads this year, six of which will be expressways.It is unprecedented in the history of Yunnan to build expressway in such a big scale, said an official with the Planning Development Committee of the southwestern province. Yunnan led the country in the length of highway with a total mileage of 105,000 kilometers by the end of 2000. However, it had only 517 kilometers of expressway. The provincial government plans to build expressway linking Yunnan with Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi in China and with countries in Southeast Asia this year. The No. 320 national highway, which starts from Shanghai and ends in Ruili on the Sino-Myanmmar border, forms a east-west channel. To date, the expressway between Qujing and Dali has been built. The province will accelerate construction of sections linking Qujing with Shengjieguan and linking Dali with Baoshan this year. It will also speed up work on the north-south expressway connecting Yibin of Sichuan Province with Thailand via Kunming, the provincial capital. |
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