This Day, That Year: Aug 20

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

To meet rapid industrial development in Liaoning province, the country's first standard expressway started construction in 1984.

Stretching more than 350 kilometers, it links Shenyang with Dalian in the province.

On Aug 20, 1990, the expressway finished construction, as seen in an item from China Daily.

One month later, it opened to traffic.

From 2002 to 2004, the highway was rebuilt from four lanes to eight with a designed maximum speed of 120 km per hour.

It is now part of the expressway linking Shenyang to Haikou, Hainan province.

The expressway marked the start of the country's massive plan to upgrade its road network.

By the end of last year, the total length of China's expressways reached 142,600 km, according to statistics from the Ministry of Transport.

The country has the world's largest expressway system by length, having passed the overall length of the American Interstate Highway System in 2011.

By 2020, the network is expected to reach 169,000 km, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

To embrace new vehicle features, such as autonomous driving, connectivity and electrification, a "smart "highway dedicated to autonomous vehicles has been launched in Shandong province.

The 26-km highway, built with technologies needed for unmanned driving, including 5G systems, three-dimensional maps and road sensors, will be opened this year.

Following its success, transport authorities in Zhejiang province announced a construction project of another such highway.

The six-lane, 161-km highway linking Hangzhou with Ningbo is expected to increase the average traffic speed by 20 to 30 percent, slashing travel time between the two cities from two hours to just one.

The highway will be built by 2022, in time for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.