With the opening of Changchun-Lalinhe expressway (or called Changyu expressway) on September 19 China's north-south trunk freeway starting from Tongjiang of Heilongjiang Province and ending at Sanya of Hainan Province is all open to traffic.
As one of the key trunk line projects on the list of the state's 10th Five-year (2001-05) Plan, the expressway runs through provinces and cities as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang from south to north.
As part of the Tongjiang-Sanya expressway, the Changyu section is a key project of Jilin Province and the Ministry of Public Transportation. Extending a full length of 159.838 kilometers, the expressway is a four-lane one in dual directions with an investment of 4.325 billion yuan, of which 127 million US dollars are the loan from the Asia Development Bank.
The Changyu expressway starts from Lalinhe at the border of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in the north, touches with Ha-Shuang expressway and linked respectively in the south with Changchun-Siping expressway and that round the Changchun City.
The line linking Changchun and Harbin runs reportedly a full length around 230 kilometers, cutting the driving time down from five to two hours after opening to traffic.
(People's Daily September 21, 2002)
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