All Chinese townships, villages connected to passenger coach services: Ministry

BEIJING -- Passenger coach services are now available in all of China's eligible townships and administrative villages as of August this year, according to the Ministry of Transport.

By the end of 2019, China's rural areas had 4.2 million km of highways, with all eligible townships and administrative villages having access to tarmac and cement roads, Vice-Minister of Transport Dai Dongchang has said.

This is part of the government efforts to alleviate poverty through transportation infrastructure construction, according to Dai.

A total of 96,000 km of tarmac and cement roads were built to connect poor villages with relatively large populations during the 2016-2019 period, while 16,900 km of expressways were built or improved in poor regions, MOT data showed.

Efforts have also been made to enhance the rural logistics network, paving the way for urban industrial products to reach rural areas while promoting the sale of farm produce in urban markets.

Every township across the country has established post offices and 97 percent of them have express delivery service outlets, the State Post Bureau revealed earlier this month.