Country's transport miracle
By Ben Johnson (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-07 07:17

The world saw thousands of anguished faces when China's rail and road systems were paralyzed by the most severe snowstorms in 50 years during Spring Festival, but a good news story of staggering scope and hope is unfolding unbeknown to many.

It is the tale of a transportation miracle - the boom in road, rail and air infrastructure that will help get affected areas back on their feet and underpin China's lightning development.

As NPC deputies gather to discuss how to expedite the recovery and chart the country's future, it is worth reflecting on the nation's transport achievements in the past 20-30 years.

A comprehensive essay in the avowedly free-market weekly newspaper The Economist recently hailed China's ability to quickly produce such marvels as the Qinghai-Tibet railway, a soon-to-opened sea bridge from Ningbo over Hangzhou Bay and the Beijing-Tianjin bullet train. It also lauded the fact that more money was spent on railways, roads and other fixed assets across China in the four years after 2001 than in the previous 50. And the efficiency of central planning in realizing many of the nation's biggest projects drew only muted criticism from the masthead because, well, the numbers speak volumes.

By the end of last year some 53,600 km of toll expressways had been laid across China, making the total length second only to the network in the US, just 20 years after the first were gouged out. About 70,000 km are due to be added by 2020, in a stark contrast to my home country - Australia - where the main highway between east coast hubs Sydney and Brisbane remains in parts a single-lane goat track after decades of bureaucratic bungling.

Roads equal economic growth and China is excavating a further 300,000 km to bring rural residents into the fold. Their lives will soon be markedly improved by the freer flow of freight - from vital healthcare equipment and other goods expats like me have long taken for granted - along newly sealed bitumen, not to mention the benefits this represents for us at the other end of the road.

China's rail network is straining under 25 percent of the world's traffic on just 6 percent of its lines, the World Bank said. But $200 billion of investment is slated for construction between 2006 and 2010 than in the previous five years.

This year alone officials have earmarked $42 billion, more than half the total for the preceding five, in a bid to smooth commuter and resource flows. Plans are in place to stretch the existing 78,000 km of track to 120,000 by 2015 in a feat that will require 60 percent more lines laid than the total for the past 30 years.

But perhaps the best news for the rail network is the boom in aviation. Earlier this month, Beijing International Airport unveiled its spectacular $3.8 billion Terminal 3. The 3-km-long hub boasts 17 percent more floor space than London's Heathrow and was built in just five years - the same time it took to conduct a public inquiry into Heathrow's terminal five.

The airport's expansion was designed to meet demand after its passenger flow rose from 26th in the world in 2002 to ninth. Another 100 airports are expected to be opened by 2020, adding to the current 142, after visitors increased from 7 million in 1985 to more than 185 million last year.

Airports that can handle more than 30 million passengers per year will grow from three to 13 and serve a new generation of commuter - like the young chef from Sichuan I chatted with on a return flight from Chengdu during Spring Festival.

He is the other face of China's transport story.

Ben Johnson is a copy editor with China Daily

(China Daily 03/07/2008 page7)