World largest mountain road network completed in western ethnic minority regions

Home>>Business

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 11, 2003

World largest mountain road network completed in western ethnic minority regions

The road project with Chinese government's largest amount of investment on the western ethnic minority regions was completed in Sichuan Province on December 8.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

The road project with Chinese government's largest amount of investment on the western ethnic minority regions was completed in Sichuan Province on December 8. The mountain road network with a total mileage of 4,276 kilometers covers three autonomous prefectures: Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Aba Tibetan and Qiang (Chiang) Autonomous Prefecture and Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and is connected with neighboring provinces and regions. The road network has become a new pivot in the social and economic development of the western ethnic minority regions.

According to introduction, the road totaling an investment of 2.85 billion yuan, lies at an average altitude of over 3,000 meters. Due to great difficulties in construction, more than ten thousand construction workers and proficient technicians of nearly one hundred participated in the project. The road network is so far the largest mountain road network in the world.

The project was started in June 2001. It has now successfully formed a road transportation web from the prefecture governments to the 38 counties, inter-and-trans-prefectural roads, trans-provincial roads to Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet and Yunnan, and roads to famous tourist resorts such as Yading, the Lugu Lake, Hailuo Glacier Valley and Ruo'ergai Grassland.

Ganzi, Aba and Liangshan three prefectures are located in the western part of the Sichuan Basin and are adjacent to Qinghai to the north, Tibet to the west and Yunnan to the south. They cover a total area of 300,000 square kilometers, accounting for 60 percent of the total area of Sichuan Province. Living there is a population of 560,000 ethnic minorities of Tibet, Qiang (Chiang) and Yi people. The area is one of the regions in China with the richest resources in tourism, water conservancy and mineral ores.

In the past, there were 21,000-kilometer-long roads of various kinds, 70 percent of which were roads poorly built with a scarcity of 7.1 kilometers per hundred square kilometers. The roads running from the locations of the three prefecture governments to the county towns totaled 7,400 kilometers, over 60 percent of which were simple and of gravel surface or only mud road with no surface. Due to the rigid geographical conditions and backward transportation, drivers could only run at a speed of 10-20 kilometers an hour in these areas.

Wang Huaichen, Vice-Governor of Sichuan Province, said that the new road network has enabled the average driving speed to more than double. It takes only one day to drive from Shiqu County, the most remote place of Ganzi Prefecture to Kangding, the capital of the prefecture while in the past it had to take three days. The project has made the road transportation in the ethnic minority regions an advancement of twenty years.

Huang Xinchu, Party secretary of the Aba Prefecture said that the road network has linked up the famous tourist resorts previously scattering around in the areas. They are the Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong (Yellow Dragon), the first crook of the Yellow River in Jiuqu, Ruo'ergai Grassland and Hongyuan Grassland, thereby forming a famous greater Jiuzhaigou tourist network. Over the past two years, as the road network gradually completed, the number of tourists to Aba Prefecture has increased to 5.5 million.

Article from Xinhuanet;translated by PD Online staff member Gao Lanrong.

Questions?Comments? Click here

China Outlines Future Plans for Expansion of Road Network

US TV dump charges not just a biz spat: Analysis ( 4 Messages)

China not to tolerate splitting Taiwan from motherland: Premier ( 3 Messages)

Trade war? A buying spree for cheap Chinese goods ( 3 Messages)

Moon probe to blast off in 3 years: Chief scientists ( 2 Messages)

Bush strategy: Spend now, pay later? ( 35 Messages)