Construction of Expressway Linking Xi'an, Airport Starts

Construction of Expressway Linking Xi'an and Xianyang Airport Starts

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Tourists to China's famous ancient capital city of Xi'an will enjoy a shorter way to a local airport in 2003 thanks to an expressway project which started Sunday.

The expressway under construction will be 13 km shorter than the existing 40 km-highway linking Xi'an, one of China's major tourist destinations, and the Xianyang International Airport near the city.

With a budget of 1.04 billion yuan (125 million U.S. dollars), the shortcut expressway is expected to be completed and open to traffic in 2003.

The two-way expressway has six lanes with a roadbed of 35 meters in width and a designed speed limit of 120 km per hour.

Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, which used to be the capital of 12 ancient Chinese dynasties, is famous for the terra-cotta warriors and horses unearthed from the Mausoleum of Emperor Shihuang, China's first emperor who founded the country's first dynasty Qin (221 B.C.- 206 B.C.).