China: TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS



Overview: Transportation networks have experienced major growth and expansion since 1949 and especially since the early 1980s. Railroads, which are the primary mode of transportation, have doubled in length since the mid-twentieth century, and an extensive network provides sufficient service to the entire nation. Even Tibet with its remote location and seemingly insurmountable terrain has railroad service under construction. The larger cities have metro systems in operation, under construction, or in the planning stage. The highway and road system also has gone through rapid expansion, with motor vehicle use rapidly increasing throughout China.



Roads: In 2003 China had 1.8 million kilometers of highways. Of this total, 78.3 percent were classified as expressways (some 30,000 kilometers) and class 1 through 4 highways (about 1.4 million kilometers). There also were more than 370,000 kilometers of village roads, nearly 90 percent of which are surfaced. All major cities are expected to be linked with a 55,000-kilometer interprovince expressway system by 2020. The highway and road systems carried nearly 11.6 billion tons of freight and 769.6 trillion passenger/kilometers in 2003. The importance of highways and motor vehicles, which carry 13.5 percent of cargo and 49.1 percent of passengers, was growing rapidly in the mid-2000s. Road usage has increased significantly, as automobiles, including privately owned vehicles, rapidly replace bicycles as the popular vehicle of choice in China. In 2002, excluding military and probably internal security vehicles, there were 12 million passenger cars and buses in operation and 8.1 million other vehicles. In 2003 China reported that there were 23.8 million vehicles in use for business purposes; of these, 14.8 million were passenger vehicles and 8.5 million were trucks.



Railroads: Railroads are the major mode of transportation in China. Carrying some 24 percent of the world’s railroad transportation volume, China’s railroads are critical to its economy. Because of its limited capital, overburdened infrastructure, and need to continually modernize, the rail system, which is controlled by the Ministry of Railways through a network of regional divisions, operates on a very tight budget. Foreign capital investment in the freight sector was allowed beginning in 2003, and international public stock offerings are to be opened in 2006. In another move to better capitalize and reform the railroad system, in 2003 the Ministry of Railways established three public shareholder-owned companies: China Railways Container Transport Company, China Railway Special Cargo Service Company, and China Railways Parcel Express Company.



The national rail system is modernizing and expanding rapidly and is efficient within the limits of the available track. Some 73,000 kilometers of track were operational in 2003. This total included 68,000 kilometers of 1.435-meter gauge (of which 18,668 kilometers were electrified) and 3,600 kilometers of 1.000-meter and 0.750-meter gauge local industrial lines. There were an additional 22,640 kilometers of dual-gauge track not included in the total. As of 2002, some 23,058 kilometers of the rail routes were double tracked, representing 38.7 percent of the total. In 2003 China’s railroad inventory included 15,456 locomotives owned by the national railroad system. These included around 100 steam locomotives, and the rest were either diesel or electric. There were another 359 locomotives owned by local railroads and 505 owned by joint-venture railroads, each of which still had more than 100 steam locomotives in their inventories. National railroad freight cars numbered 510,327 and passenger coaches 40,487. In 2003 China’s railroads carried 2.2 trillion tons of freight and 478.9 trillion passenger/kilometers. Only India had more passenger/kilometers and the United States more net ton/kilometers than China.



Starting in 2001, China began construction of a 1,118-kilometer-long railroad line linking the rest of China with Tibet. It is slated for completion in 2011. Another large-scale railroad project is the New Silk Road or Eurasian Continental Bridge project that was launched in 1992. In China the project involves the modernization and infrastructure development of a 4,131-kilometer-long railroad route starting in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, and going through central and northwestern China to Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to the Alataw Pass into Kazakhstan. From there the railroad links to some 6,800 kilometers of routes that end in Rotterdam. China also has established rail links between seaports and interior export processing zones. For example, in 2004 Chengdu in Sichuan Province was linked to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in coastal Guangdong, with exports clearing customs in Chengdu and being shipped twice daily by rail to the seaport at Shenzhen for fast delivery.



Rapid Transit: The Beijing metro system, which opened in 1969, has 113 kilometers of subway track on four lines, with an additional 98 kilometers to be built by 2010. The Guangzhou system, which opened in 1999, has 18.5 kilometers with an additional 133 kilometers planned. Shanghai metro, which opened in 1995, has 8 lines, 68 stations, and 82.8 kilometers of track, with an additional 108.4 kilometers under construction or planned. The Tianjin metro was begun in 1970 as a planned network of 153.9 kilometers on seven lines, but large sections remain closed for reconstruction with an anticipated completion in 2005. Working sections of the system total 7.4 kilometers of track, with a total of 26.2 kilometers expected to be in operation in 2005. The Shenzhen metro opened in 2004, initially with two lines, 19 stations, and 21.8 kilometers of track. Also under construction are subway and light rail systems in Chongqing and Nanjing, and systems are planned for Chengdu and Qingdao. Metro transit in Hong Kong is covered by the privately operated Mass Transit Railway, which opened in 1979 and now has six metro lines with 50 stations.



China also has the world’s first commercial magnetic levitation (maglev) train service. A Sino-German joint venture, 38-kilometer-long route between downtown Shanghai and the Pudong airport opened in 2003. In its first year of service, revenues were less than half of what was needed to keep up with the bank loan interest of US$36.2 million. The project cost US$1.2 billion and has experienced an average of 8,000 passengers per day, a rate well below capacity.



Ports and Shipping: China has more than 2,000 ports, 130 of which are open to foreign ships. The major ports, including river ports accessible by ocean-going ships, are Beihai, Dalian, Dangdong, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Haikou, Hankou, Huangpu, Jiujiang, Lianyungang, Nanjing, Nantong, Ningbo, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Rizhao, Sanya, Shanghai, Shantou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Weihai, Wenzhou, Xiamen, Xingang, Yangzhou, Yantai, and Zhanjiang. Additionally, Hong Kong is a major international port serving as an important trade center for China. As of 2002, China’s merchant fleet had 3,326 ships. Of these, there were 1,850 ships of 1,000 gross registered tons (GRT) or more that totaled 18.7 million tons. These ships included 2 barge carriers, 355 bulk carriers, 822 cargo ships, 28 chemical tankers, 10 combination bulk carriers, 2 combination ore/oil carriers, 165 container ships, 28 liquefied gas carriers, 8 multifunctional large load carriers, 6 passenger ships, 46 passenger/cargo ships, 272 petroleum tankers, 1 rail car carrier, 27 refrigerated cargo ships, 25 roll on/roll off ships, 39 short-sea/passenger ships, 10 specialized tankers, and 4 vehicle carriers. In 2003 China’s major coastal ports handled 2.1 billion tons of freight.



Inland and Coastal Waterways: China has more than 121,560 kilometers of navigable rivers, streams, lakes, and canals, and in 2003 these inland waterways carried nearly 1.6 trillion tons of freight and 6.3 trillion passenger/kilometers to more than 5,100 inland ports. The main navigable rivers are the Heilongjiang; Yangzi; Xiangjiang, a short branch of the Yangzi; and Zhujiang. Ships of up to 10,000 tons can navigate more than 1,000 kilometers on the Yangzi, as far as Wuhan. Ships of 1,000 tons can navigate from Wuhan to Chongqing, another 1,286 kilometers upstream. The Grand Canal is the world’s longest canal at 1,794 kilometers and serves 17 cities between Beijing and Hangzhou. It links five major rivers: the Haihe, Huaihe, Huanghe, Qiantang, and Yangzi.



Civil Aviation and Airports: As a result of the rapidly expanding civil aviation industry, by 2003 China had 507 airports of all types and sizes in operation, 332 of which had paved runways and 49 of which had runways of 3,047 meters or longer. There also were 15 heliports. With the additional airports came a proliferation of airlines. In 2002 the government merged the nine largest airlines into three regional groups based in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines, which operate most of China’s external flights. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), also called the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, was established as a government agency in 1949 to operate China’s commercial air fleet. In 1988 CAAC’s operational fleet was transferred to new, semiautonomous airlines and has served since as a regulatory agency. Major airports include the Capital International Airport, located 27 kilometers northeast of central Beijing; Pudong International Airport, located 13 kilometers southwest of central Shanghai; and the new Baiyun International Airport, which opened in August 2004, in Guangzhou. Beijing’s airport served some 662,000 passengers and Shanghai’s airport more than 16 million passengers in 2003. Other major airports are located at Chengdu, Dalian, Hangzhou, Harbin, Hohhot, Kunming, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin, Urumqi, Xiamen, and Xi’an. Additionally, the Hong Kong International Airport, located at Chek Lap Kok on Lantau Island 34 kilometers northwest of Hong Kong Island, in 2003 served some 26 million passengers on its 3,800 meters of runway. China is served both by numerous major international flights traveling to most countries of the world and a host of domestic regional airlines. In 2003 China’s civil aviation sector carried nearly 2.2 million tons of freight and 126.3 trillion passenger/kilometers.



Pipelines: In 2004 China had 15,890 kilometers of gas pipelines, 14,478 kilometers of oil pipelines, and 3,280 kilometers for refined products. As a major oil and gas consumer, China is searching for more external supples. Construction of a 4,200-kilometer-long pipeline from Xinjiang to Shanghai was underway in 2002–04. Discussions were underway in 2004 between the governments of China and Russia on a proposal to build a pipeline from Siberia to China’s Daqing oil field in Heilongjiang Province. In 2003 China’s pipelines carried 219.9 million tons of petroleum and natural gas.

Telecommunications: The Ministry of Information Industry reported in 2004 that China had 295 million subscribers to main telephone lines and 305 million cellular telephone subscribers, the highest numbers in both categories in the world but second per capita to the United States. Both categories were substantial increases over the previous decade; in 1995 there were only 3.6 million cellular telephone subscribers and around 20 million main line telephone subscribers. By 2003 there were 42 telephones per 100 population. Internet use also has soared in China. In 1995 there were about 60,000 Internet users; by 2000 the number had increased to 22.5 million users, and by 2003 it had reached 79.5 million. Whereas this number was nowhere near the 159 million users in the United States, and although fairly low per capita, it was second in the world and on a par with Japan, with 57 million users. China’s 2.7 million kilometers of optical fiber telecommunication cables by 2003 assisted greatly in the modernization process. China produces an increasing volume of televisions both for domestic use and export. In 2001 China produced more than 46 million televisions and had 317 million sets in use. At the same time, there were 417 million radios in use in China, a rate of 342 per 1,000 population. However, many more are reached, especially in rural areas, via loudspeaker broadcasts of radio programs that bring transmissions to large numbers of radioless households. Until it dismantled it in 2003 in a diplomatic dispute with the host nation, China had a remote satellite-tracking station on Tarawa Atoll in Kiribati.