Hainan's achievements in road network over 70 years

Travelling from the south to the north on Hainan Island used to take days, but a three-hour commuting circle is currently being formed due to Hainan's tremendous achievements in highway and road development. 

In August 1952, the island province built its first road, the Haikou-Yulin Port Road to echo with the national call to "consolidate national defense and construct Hainan". The road was built by nearly 10,000 soldiers and 100,000 local residents. 

By the end of 1989, Hainan kicked off its construction of the 250-km Haikou-Sanya Expressway, part of the province's ring highway network, and in 1995, the road was opened to traffic. It was then linked with the 324-km west part in 1999 to form the whole ring highway network of Hainan.

In recent years, the province has strengthened the construction of the expressway network on the island. Many expressways, including the Wenchang-Qionghai Expressway, the Haikou-Wenchang Expressway, as well as the Haikou and the Sanya belt expressways, have been opened to traffic, greatly promoting local economic development.

By the end of this year, the Wanning-Yangpu Expressway is expected to open to traffic, further improving the province's main highway network. In addition, construction recently began on the Wenchang-Lingao Expressway, pushing Hainan a step closer to its goal of a "three-hour travelling circle" across the whole island. 

According to Hainan's transportation department, there are more highways projects yet to be started and the province's road network will be denser.

The province will also speed up promotion of the deep integration of different modes of transportation, such as over roads, railways, waterways, and aviation, to realize seamless interchange of these transport modes in the future.

In addition, it will also focus on building an international cruise tourism consumer destination, cultivating new brands for an international tourism consumption center for Hong Kong and Macao yachts' free travel, as well as promoting the integrative development of "traffic plus tourism".

An aerial photo of the Wenchang-Qionghai Expressway. [Photo/hinews.cn]