The arrival of summer is a time to celebrate for many Beijing residents. But the season also brings a not so welcome change to the capital's streets -- large-scale road construction.

A series of new road development projects will start in Beijing this month, which are sure to greatly inconvenience commuters.

Construction of new subway lines 4, 5 and 10, for example, will slow down traffic in some areas, and are not expected to be completed until 2007.

Meanwhile, the traffic authorities will install monitoring facilities on construction sites for the first time, in a bid to enhance the supervision over traffic conditions.

The number of new vehicles hitting the streets has sped ahead to 20 thousand per month, which is one of the main reasons for the severe traffic congestion in the city.

The number of private motor vehicles in the Chinese capital reportedly hit one million by the end of April.  

(CRI.com May 11, 2004)