A viaduct tourist road in Yuncheng, Shanxi province [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

North China's Shanxi province has made strides in transport development since 2012, said a spokesman of the local provincial authority at a press conference on Sept 6. 

Over the past 10 years, Shanxi added 2,000 kilometers of highways, bringing total highway mileage to 5,763 km, and the highway network covered the whole province. 

A total of 6,011 km of ordinary arterial roads were renovated, and major towns, economic industrial parks and tourist attractions were covered by these roads. 

A total of 89,000 km of rural roads were upgraded and almost all villages now have access to hardened roads, buses, logistics and express delivery.

Tourist roads have connected 98 A-rated and above scenic spots in the province, and 270 scenic spots at the foot of the Great Wall, along the Yellow River, and in the Taihang Mountains. 

A rural road winds across terraced fields in Damo village of Wuxiang county, Shanxi province. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

Taiyuan Metro Line 2, the first metro line in the province, opened to traffic with an annual passenger volume of 39.19 million. Bus cards in the province's 11 cities were interconnected, and the average daily usage of shared and public bicycles was nearly 1 million. 

Shanxi's number of airports increased from four to seven over the past decade and civil airports now cover all prefecture-level cities in the province. 

The number of daily take-offs and landings at airports in the province increased from 238 in 2012 to 468 in 2019. 

The airport route network has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, from 127 routes to 55 cities in 2012 to 236 routes to 88 cities in 2022. A comprehensive airline network connecting the whole country, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, America and Oceania has been established.