China plans to add over 30 civil airports in 3 years

BEIJING -- China plans to add more than 30 civil airports within three years as part of efforts to improve its transportation network, Wang Zhiqing, vice transport minister, said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the country will build a further 3,000 km of inter- and intra-city railways and build or repair 25,000 km of expressways, said Wang.

As China has recently eradicated absolute poverty and transitioned to rural vitalization, more efforts will go to improving roads in the countryside to make it easier for farm produce to reach cities and industrial goods to hit the rural market, he said.

Wang Yang, chief engineer of the Ministry of Transport, said China is actively conducting research and development of high-speed maglev trains and new developments in this regard will be announced timely.