China to build Beijing-Taiwan Strait expressway

BEIJING: China will build 5,000 kilometres of expressways in 2007 to complete the trunk lines of its national highway network, including one that will connect Beijing and Taiwan Straits.

The 36,700-km trunk lines of the network are composed of five north-south highways and seven east-west highways, with 2,385 kilometres to be completed.

One of the major expressways planned is 2,500-km-long, which will connect the Chinese capital, Beijing and Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province on the west side of the Taiwan Straits, sources with the Ministry of Communications said.

China has no direct road link with Taiwan, an island of 23 million people. Beijing views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland.

China currently has 45,400 kilometres of expressways at both national and local levels, the second-largest in the world after the United States.

In 2007, China would build or upgrade 300,000 kilometres of roads in vast rural countryside.

About 260,000 kilometres of roads was newly built or improved in China's rural areas last year. Now passenger bus services have extended to 83 per cent of Chinese villages.