Railways £­Shanxi's transportation relies highly on railways. The railway network connects Shijiazhuangand Taiyuan; Beijing and Yuanping; Beijing and Baotou; Datong and Menyuan; Taiyuan and Jiaozuo. The province has completed seven double-track electric railways extending to coastal ports such as Qinghuandao, Qingdao, Yantai and Lianyungang.

Besides, the Shuozhou-Huanghua Railway has just opened to traffic. The Shuozhou-Huanghua Railway, linking Shenchi county in Shanxi with Huanghua port in Hebei. It will be the second largest railway for coal transportation from west to east in China.

Highways £­ With Taiyuan as the hub, the highways in Shanxi form a road network linking all the counties in the province. Major highway, Dayun (Datong-Yuncheng), connects the cities in south and north of the province. The Taiyuan-Jiuguan Express­way, which joins the Beijing-Shijiazhuang expressway and connects Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu expressway and Beijing-Shenzhen expressway, leads to Beijing and the region of Bohai Sea rim directly.

In the Tenth Five Year Plan, Shanxi is going to invest more to improve its highway transportation system. The province is aiming to invest at least RMB 10 billion on highway construction by end-2001.

Air Transport £­ Taiyuan Airport provides civil air service which connects Shanxi with more than 28 major domestic cities including Beijing, Xian, Chengdu and Chongq­ing. International routes linking Shanxi include Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia and Japan.

A new airport will be built in Datong City. Datong has many tourist attractions including the world-famous Yungang Grottoes. The airport will be able to accommodate Boeing-737s and expected to be completed by end-2001.

Telecommunications £­ At present, there were over 1 million subscribers for mobile phone services .

There are also 210,000 internet users.

Electricity £­ Shanxi's power industry boasts an installed capacity of 9.2 million kWh and annual output of 52.6 billion kWh. About 25% of the electricity generated is transmitting to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

Currently, a new thermal power plant, the Wangqu power plant, is under construction. This power plant is going to be the biggest thermal power plant in Asia and its installed capacity will be over 2.4 million kWh.

Gas Supply £­ As part of the Great Western Development Strategy, a major gas pipeline with total length of 4,200 kilometers will be built. The pipeline will start from the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang and ends at Shanghai, running through the provinces Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. It aims to deliver gas from the country's western area which were major gas production bases to central parts as well as Yangtze River Delta areas and the eastern regions.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)