The shanghai Land Transportation Administrative Office announced yesterday that they will start more "super long-distance routes" from the city as more and more people are using roadways to reach far-off destination points.

Next year, Shanghai will be connected with Chongqing Municipality and cities in Sichuan Province, a distance roughly over 2,000 kilometers, just before the Spring Festival, Wu Runyuan of the administrative office said.

Super long-distance routes cover distances beyond 1,000 kilometers.

Earlier this month, Shanghai was connected with Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, a distance of 1,600 kilometers. The city has also linked up with Wuhan and Yichang in Hubei Province this year.

The hubei routes enjoyed "fairly good" passenger load during Labor Day and National Day holidays, Wu said.

Last year, a "super high-way" connected Shanghai with Beijing, which is little over 1,200 kilometers.

Wu said that establishing such super long-distance lines would be given priority. Currently about 71 percent of the 1,600-plus routes from the city's 43 local terminals cover Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.

He said people chose to travel by land to distances less than 400 kilometers. Railways were a preferred mode of transport for distances that stretch beyond 400 kilometers.

"However, things are changing. Massive constructions of roadways in recent years have reduced travel time. In next few years, roadways will be able to challenge the monopoly currently enjoyed by the railways in long-distance travelling," Wu said.

Giving an example, Wu said the average journey time between Shanghai and Wuhan - a distance of 1,200 kilometers is 18 hours by rail, which can now be covered in about 12 hours by road.

(eastday.com December 16, 2002)