(Photo/Chinanews.com)

By the end of 2017, the total mileage of China’s expressways reached 136,500 kilometers, covering 97 percent of Chinese cities with a population of more than 200,000.

Rural roads surpassed 4 million kilometers, covering almost all towns and administrative villages across the country.

By the end of 2017, the total mileage of roads in China had exceeded 4.77 million kilometers, an average year-on-year growth of 4.4 percent. The concentration of road per 100 square kilometers rose to 49.72 kilometers. About 832,500 bridges with a total length of 52 million meters were also built.

The density of China’s railway network is also increasing. The length of railway in service reached 131,000 km in 2018, up from 51,700 km in 1978. The mileage of high-speed railway reached 29,000 km, 30 percent more than the combined high-speed railway mileage in other countries.

In 2018, Chinese railways registered a passenger volume of 3.37 billion and a cargo volume of 4.02 billion tonnes. Freight transportation experienced explosive growth after China-Europe trains started to run in 2011. In 2018, China sent a record number of 6,300 cargo trains to Europe, 72 percent more than it did during the previous year.

By the end of 2018, the country had 235 airports, of which 37 had a handling capacity of 10 million passengers, while ten airports had a handling capacity of 30 million passengers. The number of domestic flights reached 3,420 by the end of 2018.

By the end of last year, China had 786 international flight routes, 105 of which were between China and Belt and Road countries.