Rail, Road and Water Transportation

Freight traffic reached 63.3 billion ton-km in 2003 (up 7 percent). Of this total, railways contributed 50.9 billion ton-km (up 7.7 percent), roads 12.4 billion ton-km (up 4.5 percent) and waterways 7.0 million ton-km (up 19.3 percent).

Total passenger traffic was 23.1 billion person-km (down 0.8 percent). Of this total, railways contributed 13.3 billion person-km (down 4.3 percent), roads 8.7 billion person-km (up 3.7 percent) and waterways 19.0 million person-km (down 3.7 percent).

Rail routes

Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, is right at the geographical center of China. Here the Lanzhou-Urumqi, Baotou-Lanzhou, Longhai (Lianyungang-Lanzhou) and Lanzhou-Xining trunk railways, all converge.

The Baoji-Lanzhou and Lanzhou-Wuchang sections of the Longhai trunk railway have been electrified. The new Baoji-Zhongwei line has been linked-up to the rest of the network. The dual-track section of the Lanzhou-Urumqi railway was completed back in May 1995.

Major highways

There are 72 national and provincial highways with a total length of 35,000 kilometers. The Tianshui-Beidao and Lanzhou-Zhongchuan Airport expressways are now open for traffic. The volume of goods transported on the major highways reached 8.5 million tons with passenger traffic reaching 500 million person-km.

Airports

Gansu has opened up over 20 air routes. Lanzhou at the hub has links to major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Urumqi together with provincial cities such as Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Tianshui and Qingyang. Air traffic routes have been extended to 35,700 kilometers. In 2003, the volume of air cargo reached some 21 million ton-km (up 22.4 percent) and air passenger traffic reached 1.1 billion person-km (up 9.9 percent).

With the formal opening of Lanzhou Airport a direct air service between Lanzhou and Hong Kong is now operational.