Crew members work on a high-speed train at Beijing North Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, on Dec. 28, 2019. The high-speed railway line connecting Beijing and Zhangjiakou in north China's Hebei Province will go into service on Monday, China Railway Corporation said Saturday. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang)

Chinese people witnessed many positive changes in their lives during 2019, as the Chinese government delivered on its promises to improve the livelihood of its people in various aspects.

More convenient transportation

China’s Ministry of Transport has so far overachieved in all 12 goals released at the beginning of 2019, finishing the construction and reconstruction of 290,000 kilometers of rural roads nationwide and realizing the opening of hardened roads in all possible townships and administrative villages.

The country has also connected the public transit cards issued by 448 county-level cities and 275 cities at prefecture-level and above, and increased high-speed railway mileage by more than 5,000 kilometers during 2019.

More than 10 high-speed railway lines had been put into operation in China by the end of the year, bringing the country’s total high-speed railway mileage to more than 35,000 kilometers, continuing to rank first in the world.

Cheaper and faster Internet connection

By the end of 2019, all objectives specified in the Report on the Work of the Government in March 2019 about speeding up broadband and lowering internet rates had been realized.

On Nov. 11, 2019, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published regulations on the administration of services enabling cellphone users to switch their telecommunications service carriers without changing their phone numbers.

Many favorable policies dealing with raising the speed and lowering the rates of internet services have been rolled out in China. They cover such areas as reducing rates of broadband and dedicated internet access services of small and medium-sized enterprises, launching price floor rate plans for low-income and senior citizens, offering a maximum discount to registered impoverished households, and reducing roaming fees in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao area.

Heart-warming services ensuring better social security

At the beginning of 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China announced that China would fully implement a social security system that covers the entire population and steadily improve the benefits of social insurance.

So far, the number of Chinese residents with social security cards has exceeded 1.3 billion, accounting for more than 93 percent of the country’s population. Meanwhile, the country has issued more than 80 million electronic social security cards.

By the end of October 2019, 59.8 million registered impoverished residents had joined basic elderly endowment insurance, ensuring that rural residents entitled to the cost of living allowances were receiving them.