Expressways of China


The expressway network of China, with the national-level expressway system officially known as the National Trunk Highway System, is an integrated system of national and provincial-level expressways in China.
With the construction of the Shenyang–Dalian Expressway beginning between the cities of Shenyang and Dalian on 7 June 1984, the Chinese government started to take an interest in a national expressway system. The first modern at-grade China National Highways is the Shanghai–Jiading Expressway, opened in October 1988. The early 1990s saw the start of the country's massive plan to upgrade its network of roads. On 13 January 2005, Zhang Chunxian, China's Minister of Transport introduced the 7918 network, later renamed the 71118 network, composed of a grid of 7 radial expressways from Beijing, 9 north–south expressways, and 18 east–west expressways that would form the backbone of the national expressway system.
By the end of 2023, the total length of China's expressway network had reached, the world's largest expressway system by length, having surpassed the overall length of the American Interstate Highway System in 2011. Many of the major expressways parallel routes of the older China National Highways.
By the end of 2024, the length of China's expressway network had reached, the network now connects over 99% of cities with populations exceeding 200,000 and about 88% of all counties.

History

Origins

Prior to the 1980s, freight and passenger transport activities were predominantly achieved by rail transport rather than by road. The 1980s and 1990s saw a growing trend toward roads as a method of transportation and a shift away from rail transport. In 1978, rail transport accounted for 54.4 percent of the total freight movement in China, while road transport only accounted for 2.8 per cent. By 1997, road transport's share of freight movement had increased to 13.8 percent while the railway's share decreased to 34.3 percent. Similarly, road's share of passenger transport increased from 29.9% to 53.3% within the same time period, with railway's share decreasing from 62.7 percent to 35.4 percent. The shift from rail to road can be attributed to the rapid development of the expressway network in China.
Expressways were not present in China until 1988. It began building expressways in the late 1980s. On 7 June 1984, China's expressway ambitions began when construction of the Shenyang–Dalian Expressway began between the cities of Shenyang and Dalian. Due to policy restrictions, the expressway was nominally implemented on the first-grade automobile special highway standard in the initial stage of construction, thus making the highway technically not an expressway. Despite this, in October 1988, four years later, two full-speed, fully enclosed, controlled-accessed expressway sections from Shenyang to Anshan and Dalian to Sanshilipu totaling were completed, with the middle portion of the expressway remaining a highway. It would take until 20 August 1990, for all sections of the highway to become that of an expressway. The expressway is now part of the longer G15 Shenyang–Haikou Expressway.
On 21 December 1984, construction began on the Shanghai–Jiading Expressway in the city of Shanghai. The Shanghai–Jiading Expressway opened on 31 October 1988, becoming the first completed expressway in China. This expressway now forms part of Shanghai's expressway network. In December 1987, construction of the long Jingjintang Expressway started, connecting the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, and the province of Hebei. It the first expressway in mainland China that uses a World Bank loan for international open bidding. The expressway was opened on 25 September 1993 and later became part of the G2 Beijing–Shanghai Expressway.
On 3 September 1998, Huabei Expressway Co., Ltd., Northeast Expressway Co., Ltd., Hunan Changyong Expressway Co., Ltd., and Guangxi Wuzhou Transportation Co., Ltd. were approved by the government as the first batch of nationally issued stock companies that would develop, construct, and operate expressways in China.

Modernization

On 13 January 2005, Zhang Chunxian, China's Minister of Transport announced that China would build a network of expressways over the next three decades, connecting all provincial capitals and cities with a population of over 200,000 residents. The announcement introduced the 7918 network, a grid of 7 radial expressways from Beijing, 9 north–south expressways, and 18 east–west expressways that would form the backbone of the national expressway system. This replaced the earlier proposal for five north–south and seven east–west core routes, proposed in 1992.
In June 2013, the Ministry of Transport introduced the National Highway Network Planning, covering both the national highway system and the national expressway system from 2013 to 2030. Goals include making traffic travel more convenient and developing a variety of regions, as well as more focus to the highways and expressways of the western regions of China. According to this plan, the total size of the national road network will reach, including of common national highways and about of expressways. In addition, the 7918 network would be renamed the 71118 network when the number of north–south expressways were increased from 9 to 11. Huang Min, director of the Basic Industry Department of the Development and Reform Commission, said that whether the plan is for ordinary national roads, the development of expressways is prioritized more in the western regions. According to Huang, the two expressways were to be added to the western region, while none in the northern, eastern, or southern regions.
In 2014, Wang Tai, deputy director of the Highway Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, introduced the national toll highway mileage and mainline toll stations.
On 6 November 2015, Hu Zuicai, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced a reform policy for construction of China's expressway system that was approved by the State Council. Hu claimed that the current highway construction is facing problems such as pre-approval and evaluation assessment. Through simplification and integration of examination and approval stages, it will help speed up the pace of highway construction, promote urban development in the region, and help stabilize growth and promote investment. This policy, during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, would focus on five aspects:
  • Speeds up the building of expressways, especially to link the broken roads between the provinces as soon as possible, and to play the overall role of the expressway system;
  • Supports the three major strategies and strengthen the important domestic and inter-provincial channels of the international economic cooperation corridor, connecting important coastal highways along the coast of the Yangtze River and linking the construction of important port highways;
  • Serves new urbanization and urban agglomerations, and connecting cities and cities within urban agglomerations between cities and cities is the key to construction;
  • Supports poverty alleviation and cracks down on poverty by linking between cities and regions;
  • Efforts are made to improve the efficiency of transportation, so that the freeway and other modes of transport can be seamlessly connected or transferred and the overall transportation efficiency can be improved.
In 2020, all toll booths at provincial borders were abolished in favour of ETC, greatly reducing traffic congestion.
In 2022, the NDRC and MOT published a new National Highway Network Plan, added and re-formed several expressways and national highways. It is expected that all national expressways will connect prefecture-level administrative regions, other cities and counties with 100,000 and more populations, and important border checkpoints.

Safety

In 2008, the rate of fatalities on Chinese expressways is 3.3 fatalities per 100 million vehicle-km. Nonetheless, the fatality rate on Chinese expressways is five times higher than
western countries, which have a 0.7 rate. In 2010 the total expressway mileage accounted for only 1.85 percent of highway mileage driven, however accidents on expressways made up 13.54% of highway traffic deaths. For the 2011-2015 period this was still at 10%. The accidents are mainly caused by tailgating, fatigue and speeding.

Expressway infrastructure

Nomenclature

Neither officially named "motorway" nor "highway", China used to call these roads "freeways". In this sense, the word "free" means that the traffic is free-flowing; that is, cross traffic is grade separated and the traffic on the freeway is not impeded by traffic control devices like traffic lights and stop signs. Some time in the 1990s, "expressways" became the standardised term.
Note that "highways" refers to China National Highways, which are not expressways at all.
"Express routes" exist too; they are akin to expressways but are mainly inside cities. The "express route" name is a derivation of the Chinese name kuaisu gonglu. Officially, "expressway" is used for both expressways and express routes, which is also the standard used here.
The names of the individual expressways are regularly composed of two characters representing start and end of expressway, e.g. "Jingcheng" expressway is the expressway between "Jing" and Chengde.

Speed limits

The Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates the speed limit of, effective since 1 May 2004.
A minimum speed limit of is in force. On overtaking lanes, however, this could be as high as. Penalties for driving both below and in excess of the prescribed speed limits are enforced.
Some expressways have a lower design speed of.

Legislation

Only motor vehicles are allowed to enter expressways. As of 1 May 2004, "new drivers" are allowed on expressways, something that was prohibited from the mid-1990s.
Overtaking on the right, speeding, and illegal use of the emergency belt cost violators stiff penalties.