China's transport infrastructure greatly improves over last decade: report

BEIJING -- China has made notable achievements in its construction of a comprehensive transport system over the last decade, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

During the 2013-2021 period, the total investment in China's transport industry topped 27 trillion yuan (about 3.88 trillion U.S. dollars), the report said.

By the end of 2021, the length of China's operational railways surpassed 150,000 kilometers, surging 54.4 percent from that in 2012, and the length of highways rose 24.6 percent from 2012 to 5.28 million kilometers.

The length of the country's air routes for regular civil aviation flights had soared 110.3 percent from 2012 to 6.9 million kilometers at the end of last year.

China has also accelerated its establishment of a high-speed transportation network, with high-speed railways, expressways and civil aviation facilities as pillar infrastructure.

In 2021, China's high-speed railway network covered more than 95 percent of cities with a population of over 1 million, with a total operating length 4.3 times as much as that in 2012, the report said.

The country's expressways linked over 98 percent of cities with a population of over 200,000 last year, and airports operating regular flights covered approximately 92 percent of prefecture-level cities nationwide.