The landmarks in the nation's expressway development: In Dec. 1988, Hujia Expressway (Shanghai-Jiading) was open to traffic, which marks the beginning of rapid growth period of China's expressway construction starting from scratch. By the end of 2003, the total mileage of China's motorway has topped 34,000km, ranking the second place in the world. And the number is still growing rapidly. That means, it only takes China fifteen years to develop advanced expressway network which usually takes the developed countries 40 years to finish the job! During the fifteen years, several important advanced highway construction conferences played a vital role in accelerating the nation's highway development, they are: the First China's High Grade Highway Construction Conference held in 1989 (the Shenyang Conference), the National Highway Construction Conference (the Shandong Conference) held in 1993 following the goal of upgrading the existing infrastructure was established, and the Conference about Accelerating the National Highway Construction (the Fuzhou Conference) held in 1998. Among them,

1. Shenyang Conference specificly put forward that China must develop expressway construction, and ten proposals concerning the construction of high grade highway were put forward: 

1. respective responsibilities borne by central government and localities
2. implementation of long-term planning stage by stage
3. multi-channel funding
4. providing preferential policies
5. guiding the public to participate the construction
6. rational layout
7. efficient highway operation
8. efficient management of fee collection
9. improvement of government subsidiary method
10. strengthening planning and early stage preparation work. To this day, the ten proposals are still in use to guide the nation's expressway construction.

2. In June,1993, the strategy of upgrading the existing highway construction was established, putting the emphasis on the construction of the "two verticals and two horizontals" high-grade highway sections, indicating the beginning of a booming highway construction market.

3. In June 1998, new strategy was established at the Fuzhou Conference, specifying the goal, commissions and measures concerning the acceleration of expressway construction. Guided by the strategy "implementing pro-active fiscal policies, accelerating the construction of infrastructure, and expanding internal needs" established by the central government, the investment scale of highway construction was increased from the original 120 billion RMB to 160 billion RMB (and another 2 billion RMB was later added in the second half of the year) in 1989 with the aim accelerating the nation's highway construction. And the implementation of highway construction plan was also remarkably ahead of schedule. Most road sections in the "five verticals and seven horizontals" are now under construction, and the expressways under construction around the country reaching 1.26×104km.

Remarkable achievements during the fifteen years:

1. In the light of road quantity, the expressway mileage open to traffic grows dramatically, with half of the provinces exceeding 1000km by the end of 2003 and total of 10 billion RMB invested. The total mileage of road in China has reached 1.81 million km. Of which, 4600km new expressways have been built up, fulfilling the first stage goal of the "five verticals and seven horizontals" national trunk lines. Namely all the three sections of the "two verticals and two horizontals" have been open to traffic, among which the expressway in Shandong Province has topped 3,000km, Jiangsu and Guandong 2,000km, Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Henan, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Shaanxi 1,000km respectively. Except Tibet, all other provinces and autonomous regions have their own expressways.

2. In the light of road quality, the nation's existing expressways are basically in good condition, meeting the demands of comfortable, fast, and safe transportation. According to statistics conducted by the inspection team of national expressway maintenance:

1. among the 6,448km expressway tested, the RQI value of 5,158km is higher than 90, amounting for 80 percent. Of the 118km tested, the PCI value of 98km is higher than 90, amounting for 83 percent. Also worth noting is that the PCI values of some earlier expressways, thanks to proper maintenance and sufficient funding, are all higher than 90, such as Jing-Jin-Tang Expressway, Ji-Qing Expressway, etc.
2. bridges and tunnels and their protective structures are kept in good conditions. While putting stress on the pavement maintenance, the localities also attach great importance to the maintenance work of sub grades, bridges and tunnels, and the facilities along them, basically achieving the maintenance goal for such facilities as bridges and tunnels, drainage structures, and side slopes.
3. the green belts along expressways are well pruned and preserved. Adapting to terrains, the localities have grown diverse green trees and designed multi-layered greenbelts, reaching 100% green coverage. The sights along expressways are scenery, which not only improves the environment but also improves driving comfort for drivers, making the exprssways become a splendid landscape.

New strategies and visions:

according to the new "Tenth Five Year Plan", 3.5×104km new expressway will be constructed. In light of the current economic situation and the strategy of accelerating infrastructure construction, China renovates its "Tenth Five Year Plan" strategy. According to the new strategy, by the end of the "Tenth Five Year Plan", the total highway mileage will reach 195×104km. Of them, new mileage is increased from 15×104km to 28×104km, requiring annual growth rate at 5.6×104km. Included is the expressway mileage which is increased from 2.5×104km to 3.5×104km, Class?and above highway is increased from 27×104km to 30×104km; And the density of road is increased from 16.1/104m2 to 20.3km/104m2, and the access rate of highways in rural areas is increased from 99.5% to 99.8%, enabling 687 towns to access to highways, 49,000 villages inaccessible to railway to access to highways, and the access rate of highways in rural villages is increased from 93% to 96%.

According to the renovated "Tenth Five Year Plan", the goal for 2004 will be: 7×104km new highway will be constructed. Among which 3,500km new expressway will be constructed; by the end of 2004, the nation’s total mileage will reach 188×104km, among them the total expressway mileage will reach 3.3×104km; 10×104km rural highway will be constructed or renovated.

2. Strategic vision: the 8.2×104km expressway network planning. Among the completed and under construction expressways, most are national trunk highways and local expressways laid out in the "Five Verticals and Seven Horizontals", which is only a stage plan. According to the grand strategy of building a well-of society in an all-round way worked out at the "Sixteenth National Conference", China should work out a high capacity, efficient, safe and convenient national expressway network plan, given the current $US1000 Per capita GDP and the dramatic growth of housing and car consumption. Which is not only the urgent requirements and important support of building a well-off society and in an all-round way and achieving social modernization, but also helps to gain advantage for the nation in the fierce international competition environment and improve its overall strength and competitiveness.

In the light of such situation, China put forward the strategic vision of building the total 8.2×104km expressway nationwide, including the "Five Verticals and Seven Horizontals" national trunk lines. Upon its completion, the national expressway network will serve to:

1. cover over 1 billion population. Among them eastern region accounting for 90%, central region 83%, and western region 70%. And the GDP of covered regions should amount for 85 percent of national GDP, achieving average 30min from the eastern region to expressway, average 1h from the central region, and average 2h from the western region.
2. link all the provincial capitals (not including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), among them 83 percent of 500,000 populated big cities and 74 percent of 200,000 populated medium-sized cities.
3. link all the important transportation hub cities, included are 50 railway hubs, 67 airway hubs, 140 overland hubs and 50 waterway hubs, forming a grand integrated communications network.
4. strengthen the communications between such economically developed regions as the Yangtze River Triangle, the Pearl River Triangle, etc. aiming to build at least three expressways linking such areas; For the internal of each metropolitan region, a comparatively complete inter-city expressway network will be established. At the same time, the radiative role of such big cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Xian, etc will be further strengthened.
5. link main national first grade border highways to strengthen the external communications; In addition, the network also links the famous 4A tourism cities.
6. save land resources, stimulate the national economic growth and the development of relevant industries, and create more job opportunities. It is estimated that the building of national expressway network will create accumulated national GDP over 6,000 billion RMB and 2 million job opportunities.