Pioneering with Transportation Development

Transportation is a foundational, pioneering, strategic industry and an important service sector in the national economy. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, several generations have been forging paths through mountains and building bridges over waters, transforming the country into a major transportation hub and accelerating its development into a powerhouse in this field. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country has adhered to the principles of prioritizing transportation, leading with innovation, and connecting the world through transportation. It has become a pioneer in the modernization process with Chinese characteristics, playing a significant role in supporting and serving high-quality economic and social development and realizing the beautiful vision of "people enjoying their travels and goods flowing smoothly."

The comprehensive and three-dimensional transportation network is becoming increasingly refined. On September 15, the comprehensive transportation hub of the third-phase expansion project of Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport fully met the completion conditions. Wu Qiang, the chief engineer of the project at China Railway Construction Engineering Group, introduced that the comprehensive transportation hub of the third-phase expansion project of Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport is the first comprehensive passenger hub in the country to implement an optimized air-rail (track) transfer process, integrating various modes of transportation such as road, rail, and air. Nowadays, there is almost daily news of significant progress in transportation construction projects across the country.

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The development of transportation is closely related to national development. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, everything was in a state of disrepair, and the transportation situation was very backward. At that time, the total railway mileage in the country was only 21,800 kilometers, half of which was paralyzed, with only 80,800 kilometers of highways open to traffic, 51,000 civilian vehicles, 12 civil aviation routes, and the main modes of transportation were still animal-drawn carts and wooden sailing boats.

To become wealthy, one must first build roads. Several generations in China have made unremitting efforts. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country successively constructed major projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, Beijing-Shanghai Railway, and the Capital International Airport, changing the backward and closed transportation situation. After the 1990s, the country took accelerating the development of transportation as an important strategic goal, and transportation investment continued to increase. From 1996 to 2012, the investment in the national transportation industry grew by an average of 18.1% per year.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the transportation system has been further improved, and the service quality has been continuously enhanced. From 2013 to 2023, the investment in the national transportation industry grew by an average of 8.1% per year. Among them, the investment in the road transportation industry grew by an average of 10.1% per year, the investment in the air transportation industry grew by an average of 7.3% per year, the investment in the railway transportation industry grew by an average of 4.3% per year, and the investment in the water transportation industry grew by an average of 3.2% per year. The country has formed a comprehensive transportation network composed of various modes of transportation such as railways as the backbone, and roads, waterways, and airways.

On September 14, with the opening and operation of the Meizhou West to Longchuan West section of the Longlong High-Speed Railway, the operating mileage of China's railways exceeded 160,000 kilometers, of which high-speed railways exceeded 46,000 kilometers, respectively increasing by 64.2% and 392.2% compared to the end of 2012. More than 100 years ago, Mr. Sun Yat-sen proposed the dream of having 100,000 miles (about 160,000 kilometers) of railways in his "Industrial Plan," which has now become a reality.

It's not just about railways. Data shows that by the end of 2023, the total mileage of national highways reached 5.4368 million kilometers, of which expressways reached 1.836 million kilometers; the navigable mileage of inland waterways reached 1.282 million kilometers, of which the navigable mileage of third-level and above waterways reached 154,000 kilometers; the number of productive berths in ports reached 22,023, of which berths of 10,000 tons and above reached 2,878; the total number of civilian transport airports reached 259, of which the number of transport airports with an annual passenger throughput of 10 million people and above reached 38, and the number of transport airports with a cargo and mail throughput of 10,000 tons and above reached 63.

With the increase in quantity, China's comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network is also becoming increasingly refined, and transportation within and between regions is more convenient. The 1-hour traffic circle in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei core area and the 1.5-hour traffic circle between adjacent cities have basically been formed, and the main skeleton of the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei on Track" has been formed; the three-dimensional transportation network covering 11 cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is becoming denser and denser, the "Greater Bay Area on Track" is accelerating, and the "1-hour living circle" has basically been formed, with a driving time from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macao taking only 30 minutes...

Li Xiaopeng, the Minister of Transport, introduced that the total mileage of China's comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network has exceeded 6 million kilometers. Among them, the main skeleton of "6 axes, 7 corridors, and 8 channels" has basically taken shape, covering more than 80% of the counties in the country, serving about 90% of the national economy and population.The degree of intelligence and greening continues to increase

Giant dragons gallop, roads are built in the clouds, and thousands of bridges soar... In recent years, Chinese bridges, roads, ports, and high-speed railways have become bright Chinese business cards, with technology supporting transportation to achieve leapfrog development.

In terms of railway construction, the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu high-speed railway is an important part of the national "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network along the Yangtze River high-speed railway corridor. "In the construction process of the control project of the Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel along the entire line, we focused on intelligent construction and built the first fully digital pipe production line in China, realizing the interconnection and intercontrol of the entire process such as steel cage processing, mold entry, mold cleaning, demoulding agent spraying, pouring, vibration, leveling, steaming, water conservation, and storage." said Wang Yi, deputy manager of the equipment department of the Chongtai Yangtze River Tunnel project of China Railway Tunnel Bureau.

In terms of highway construction, on September 15, the widening and expansion project of the Shanghai-Kunming Expressway Li Dong project was basically completed for the entire line of bridge engineering, subgrade engineering, and protection engineering. The person in charge of the engineering department of the Li Dong expansion project office of Jiangxi Communication Investment Group introduced that in the intelligent digital paving construction of the road surface, independent innovation technologies such as 3D paving and fully automatic temperature measurement and thickness measurement were adopted. 3D paving uses the global satellite positioning system and laser height control system to fully and three-dimensionally control the paving plane accuracy and elevation accuracy, achieving intelligent and precise control of paving thickness and flatness.

In terms of waterway construction, on September 16, the first national center fishing port wharf of Huangsha Port in Yancheng, Jiangsu, which was invested, constructed, and operated by social capital led by China Railway Construction Investment Group, with the participation of China Railway 16th Bureau and China Railway Construction Port and Navigation Bureau, was officially put into use. It is reported that the wharf of the port pool was put into use this time, adding 16 modern wharves that can berth four fishing vessels for operation at the same time, becoming the first wharf in the country to achieve refueling and icing at the same time. In the future, it can achieve intelligent scheduling and docking of fishing vessels, intelligent classification and digital measurement of fishery products, traceability of fishery product quality, and multi-dimensional digital integration and informatization of fishing ports, marking a solid step in the modernization process of China's fishing port wharves.

Transportation builders have made unremitting efforts to conquer a series of technical difficulties, and one difficult problem after another has been solved, with the level of transportation construction ability continuously moving towards the high end. High-speed railway projects represent the speed of Chinese engineering, and Chinese bridge engineering represented by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge represents the span of Chinese engineering; high-speed, high-cold, high-altitude, heavy-load railway construction and special bridge and tunnel construction technology have entered the world's advanced ranks, offshore deep-water port construction key technology, giant estuary navigation channel regulation technology, long river section navigation channel system management, and large airport engineering construction technology have reached the world's leading level; the integration and application ability of urban information model (CIM), building information model (BIM), big data, intelligence, mobile communication, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and other information technologies continue to improve.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, China's transportation industry has continuously improved its degree of intelligence and greening on the basis of consolidating technical foundations. The construction pace of intelligent railways, smart highways, smart waterways, smart civil aviation, and smart postal services has accelerated, the first domestic large cruise ship has been put into use, the C919 large aircraft has achieved commercial operation, the CR450 high-speed train has deepened research and development, the proportion of new energy vehicles in urban buses has reached 77.6%, and the scale of automated container terminals that have been built and are under construction is at the forefront of the world...

The sense of gain and happiness of the masses continues to increase

Data from the Ministry of Transport shows that during this year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, the cross-regional personnel flow of the whole society reached 629.564 million person-times, with an average of 209.854 million person-times per day, a year-on-year increase of 31.1% compared with the same period in 2023. Among them, the railway passenger volume was 42.573 million person-times, the waterway passenger volume was 1.981 million person-times, the civil aviation passenger volume was 5.069 million person-times, and the cross-regional personnel flow of highways was 579.94 million person-times, basically meeting the transportation needs of the masses during the festival.

Entering the new century, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the development of the transportation industry has emphasized the construction of transportation that satisfies the people. The travel of the people has become more comfortable and convenient, and the transportation of goods has become more smooth and efficient, continuously moving towards the beautiful vision of "people enjoy their travel, goods flow smoothly".In the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a series of livelihood projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Railway have been completed and put into use. People and capital flow in both directions, creating an increasingly interconnected and integrated new landscape in the Greater Bay Area. In the old revolutionary areas, the opening and operation of the Chang-Gan High-Speed Railway, integrated with the Changjiu, Hefu, and Shanghai-Kunming railways, have ended the history of no high-speed train services in the central Soviet areas of northern and southern Jiangxi, effectively promoting poverty alleviation and regional economic and social development in the revolutionary old areas. In remote mountainous regions, 81 pairs of "slow trains" still travel through the mountains every day, carrying mountain people and their vegetables, eggs, poultry, and livestock on the land of hope at the lowest fare of 1 yuan.

Highway mileage is far ahead, high-speed railways are leading, transportation equipment technology has made significant breakthroughs, and the development of intelligent transportation is accelerating, all of which have brought better travel experiences to the public. In addition, there is a super project in China's transportation field that benefits hundreds of millions of people, which is rural roads. Compared with cities, rural areas have lagging economic development and backward transportation infrastructure, which urgently need to be improved. Especially in some remote areas, changing a cableway or repairing a section of road can open a door to increase income for the public.

The people's aspiration for a better life is our goal. The transportation industry has vigorously promoted the construction of "four good rural roads", making an important contribution to poverty alleviation and the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society. The sense of gain, happiness, and security of farmers is continuously increasing, and rural roads have become the wealth road, happiness road, heart connection road, and revitalization road at the doorstep of the public.

In terms of "building well", all townships and administrative villages with conditions in the country have been connected by hard-surfaced roads. In the past 10 years, 2.5 million kilometers of rural roads have been newly built or rebuilt. By the end of 2023, the total mileage of rural roads in the country has reached 4.6 million kilometers. In terms of "managing well", a sound management system and mechanism for rural roads have been established, and county-level administrative units with rural road management tasks have achieved full coverage of the "road chief system"; in terms of "protecting well", 63,000 rural road dangerous bridges have been transformed, and 1.3 million kilometers of safety life protection projects have been implemented. In terms of "operating well", all townships and administrative villages with conditions in the country have been connected by passenger cars, especially the integration of passenger and freight mail in rural areas has achieved positive results, with more than 11,000 integrated passenger and freight mail lines opened, and rural passenger cars transporting more than 200 million pieces of mail and express items per year. In addition, the level of equal urban and rural transportation services is also continuously improving.

Looking back, China's transportation industry has made significant achievements in infrastructure, network layout, postal services, passenger and freight transportation, scientific and technological innovation, low-carbon development, and international cooperation. Looking ahead, in the face of the grand blueprint for the comprehensive promotion of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization, the transportation industry continues to make efforts and steps, striving to provide stronger and more powerful service guarantees.