The total length of the highway on China's mainland is over 1.4 million kilometers, with an increase of 240,000 kilometers in the past five years.
"The expressway construction developed rapidly. The total length of the expressway has reached 16,000 kilometers, with an increase of 13,000 kilometers in the last five years," Hu Xijie, vice minister of Communications said here Thursday at a press conference.
Hu said the total length of the artery highway has reached 18,000 kilometers, taking up over 50 percent of the plan.
Hu also told the press conference that the handling capacity of Chinese harbors has reached 2.35 billion tons in 2000, with that of Shanghai surpassed 200 million tons.