Open Roads

We are waiting here to be the fi rstpassengers after this expresswayis open to traffic,” an unnamedtruck driver from north China’s HebeiProvince told China Business News at a tollstation on the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway onJuly 15.

“After this expressway is open, we cansave one or two days and more than 1,000yuan ($148.37) for every one-way trip to Xinjiang.”

On July 15, the Ministry of Transport(MOT) and the governments of InnerMongolia Autonomous Region, GansuProvince and Xinjiang Uygur AutonomousRegion jointly announced that the 2,768-km Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway hadbecome fully operational, with three finalsections along risky terrain opened to raffi c.

The new sections have a combinedlength of more than 1,200 km—the 930-kmLinhe-Baigeda section in Inner Mongolia, the134-km Baigeda-Mingshui section in Gansuand the 178-km Mingshui-Hami section inXinjiang. The sections run through the GobiDesert, which is characterized by droughtand other poor natural conditions.

With construction started in September2012, the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway, orG7, has been built across Beijing and fiveother provincial-level regions, namely Hebei,Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. Itpasses cities including Zhangjiakou, Ulanqab,Hohhot, Baotou, Linhe, Ejin Banner, Hami,Turpan and Urumqi.

The expressway will cut nearly 1,300km off the journey from Beijing to Urumqi,capital of Xinjiang, compared with travelingvia other highways, serving as the fastestand most convenient way to enter Xinjiangfrom north China by road. It also providesquick passage from Xinjiang’s Khorgos Portto north China’s Tianjin Port and reducesthe length of the Eurasian Land Bridgelinking Tianjin Port with Rotterdam in theNetherlands.

Boosting economy

Between the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway’s complete opening on July 15 and the morning of July 17, a total of 987 vehicles including 875 trucks entered Xinjiang, while 709 vehicles including 639 trucks exited the region through the Baishanquan toll sta- tion, the first such control point along the expressway’s Xinjiang section, according to Bai Jianguo, Party secretary of the transport bureau of Hami City in Xinjiang.

“Most of the trucks passing through the toll station are from Tianjin, Hebei and Inner Mongolia,” Bai told China Business News. Now is the harvest season for Hami melons, a kind of honeydew melon pro- duced in Hami City of east Xinjiang, and most of the trucks leaving Xinjiang were carrying these and other fruit and farm pro- duce. The trucks entering Xinjiang typically carry raw materials and machines as well as parts and accessories.

Li Dunyin, Vice Mayor of Hami, said, “The Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway will make Xinjiang more closely connected with inland areas and signifi cantly stimulate the develop- ment of the economy and tourism industry in the areas along it.”

The entire Baigeda-Mingshui sec- tion of the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway, also called the Baiming Expressway, lies in Mazongshan Town, Subei County of Jiuquan City in Gansu. Learning that a new section was to be built, Wei Hong, head of the town, felt excited. Situated 480 km from the Subei County seat, Mazongshan covers 60,000 square km but has a popula- tion of only 13,000. For a long time, the only road connecting Mazongshan to the outside world had been a dirt road, and the town seemed to be located at a dead end.

Wei said Mazongshan has abundant min- eral resources as well as cultural and tourism resources, but poor road conditions have made it difficult and expensive to access these resources. The newly opened express- way will greatly cut the transport time of these resources to the outside world.

Since the construction of the Baiming Expressway, Mazongshan and the whole of Subei have started industrial restructuring. “We plan to establish a camel industry base to attract investment, which will include processing camel meat, hair and dairy products,” said Wei.

The Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway is stimu- lating industrial restructuring and upgrading in many regions along it.

“The Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway and the Beijing-Xinjiang Railway are changing Ejin Banner into a land transportation hub,” said Zhang Huiqin, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Economy and Information Technology of Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia.

According to her, the expressway will bring huge flows of people, logistics and information to Ejin, whose road transport volume is expected to reach 13 million tons by 2020.

Zhang said Ejin is planning to build an 89-hectare logistics industry park near its entrance to the expressway, with a total in- vestment of 1 billion yuan ($148.37 million), and developing the park into an interna- tional trading and logistics industry park and modern logistics information platform in northwest China.

The bigger picture

“The 500-km section of the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway in Inner Mongolia runs through an uninhabited area without any water and power supply or telecom signals,” said Wang Hengbin, deputy chief of the engineering management division of MOT’s administra- tion of highways.

Wang said the significance of the ex- pressway is that it is an important part of the national expressway network. This express- way will enhance the connection of different parts of north China and better serve China’s western development strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative.

Ren Jinxiong, inspector of MOT’s depart- ment of comprehensive planning, said the Beijing-Xinjiang Expressway opens a new east-west passageway linking Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. It is the most convenient highway linking Beijing with northwest Inner Mongolia, north Gansu and Xinjiang.

“Besides serving the Belt and Road Initiative and the western development strategy, the expressway will also promote economic and cultural exchanges between China and Mongolia, consolidate national de- fense and promote coordinated economic development in different regions along its route,” Ren said.

According to the national highway net- work plan approved by the State Council in 2013, by 2030, China’s national expressway network will have a total length of 118,000 km, comprising seven routes connecting Beijing with other major cities—Harbin, Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Macao, Kunming, Lhasa and Urumqi—11 north- south roads and 18 east-west links.

MOT figures show that by the end of June 2017, China’s expressway network had grown 31,200 km since December 2012 to reach 99,200 km, around 84 percent of its total planned length.