Minister: China sees more passenger, cargo movements than other countries

China's Transport Minister Liu Wei meets the press after the opening meeting of the 14th National People's Congress' third session in Beijing on Wednesday. (Wang Zhuangfei/chinadaily.com.cn)

China has emerged as the world's busiest country in terms of passenger and cargo movements, thanks to the rapid growth of its transport, China's Transport Minister, Liu Wei, said on Wednesday.

"China's high-speed railways, roads, bridges, ports and express delivery services have become shining symbols of the country's modernization," Liu said, pointing to the country's remarkable achievements in infrastructure.

He made the remarks in an interview in Beijing after the opening meeting of the 14th National People's Congress' third session. It was Liu's first public interview since he became transport minister last year.

China has built the world's largest high-speed railway network, expressway network, postal and express delivery network, and a world-class port cluster. The country's high-speed railway network now spans 48,000 kilometers, and its expressway network extends over 190,000 kilometers, both ranking first globally. The total length of China's transport system has surpassed 6 million kilometers, with 90 percent of the planned main framework completed.

"These major transport infrastructure projects have laid a solid material foundation for China's modernization," Liu said.

The minister also underscored China's advanced technological capabilities in building high-speed railways, bridges and ports. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway is the world's first intelligent high-speed railway with a design speed of 350 kilometers an hour, he said.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the world's longest cross-sea bridge, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, the most complex cross-sea cluster project globally, which opened last year, were also highlighted as engineering marvels.

In addition, China's automated ports, featuring independently developed technologies, lead the world in both scale and quantity.

Liu also talked about several records set recently. On Feb 3, the daily number of cross-regional passenger trips reached 339 million. Daily traffic on expressways peaked at over 70 million vehicles last year. During the latest 40-day Spring Festival travel period, which concluded on Feb 22, the number of cross-regional passenger trips exceeded 9 billion, 7.1 percent more than during the corresponding period last year.

"These figures demonstrate the vibrancy of a dynamic China," Liu said.