Improved transport making regions richer

Chen Min, a 45-year-old fruit vendor in Liuzhi special district in Southwest China's Guizhou province, never thought that her small business would become internationalized.

Born in the town of Longhe, Chen started selling fruits from a roadside stall in the town three years ago. In addition to the locally produced fruit she sells, Chen buys non-local fruit from a market near Liuzhi East Station.

"I often buy wholesale bananas, mangos and dragon fruit from a trader coming from Kunming in Yunnan province which borders Guizhou," said Chen, pointing to the dozen types of fruit on her food stand. "Some tropical fruits come from Laos, which are transported to Yunnan via the China-Laos Railway."

The 1,035-kilometer railway, which runs between Kunming South Station and Vientiane South Station in Laos, went into operation in December 2021, transporting over 3,800 kinds of goods in addition to passengers.

The railway has become an important logistics channel connecting China, Laos and Southeast Asian countries.

"Besides those non-local fruits, the plums, peaches and watermelons are locally produced," she said, adding that she can earn over 100,000 yuan ($14,730) annually from selling fruit.

Chen said she is now betting on the expanded Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, which runs through Liuzhi and serves as a crucial horizontal transport artery connecting western Guizhou with Yunnan and Southeast Asia.

The 2,730-km Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, which was fully connected on Sept 8, 2011, has faced pressure as the existing four-lane road section in Guizhou has had to battle congestion amid fast economic growth.

To alleviate congestion and aid regional economic development, Guizhou decided to expand the Anshun-Panzhou section of the expressway, with the expansion starting in 2022, said Li Shifu, Party secretary of the APFJ-3 division of China Railway No 4 Engineering Group in building the section.

Invested by Guizhou Transportation Investment Group, the Anshun-Panzhou expressway cost some 32.311 billion yuan and has 97 km within Liupanshui, Li said.

"With the new Anshun-Panzhou section being put into operation later this year alongside the existing expressway, fruit coming from Laos and from Kunming will be faster, while transport costs will fall," Chen said, adding that this will help her earn more.

China has been bolstering its road network, with the Ministry of Transport saying the country invested some 779.7 billion yuan on building roads during the first five months of this year.

Experts estimate the nation's roads transported some 21.2 billion metric tons of goods during the first half, as well as 23 billion trips for passengers during the period.

Agricultural advancement

Administered by the prefecture-level city of Liupanshui, county-level Liuzhi houses some 750,300 residents coming from 32 ethnic groups in 15 towns, and its agricultural produce is noticeable.

Liuzhi netted a regional GDP of 19.387 billion yuan in 2025, an annual hike of 6.0 percent, said Yao Hong, magistrate of Liuzhi, promising to increase the local GDP by 6.5 percent in 2026.

The modernization of agriculture in Liuzhi is accelerating, Yao said, adding that "we have turned mountainous agriculture into a distinctive product and achieved a new leap in traditional industries".

Wei Mingxiang is the head of a professional strawberry and vegetable planting cooperative in Mugang town, grouping five families.

Set up in July 2014, the cooperative is engaged in strawberry, konjac and vegetable planting, netting some 600,000 yuan each year, Wei said.

With 96 vegetable greenhouses on a land of some six hectares, the group can produce over 1,500 kilograms of "Chocolate" brand strawberries per 600 square meters between November and early April.

"During the holidays and weekends, people from the cities of Anshun and Guiyang, our provincial capital, would drive to our greenhouses to pick strawberries," Wei said.

In busy days, he would hire a dozen local farmers to help.

He said he hoped that the new Anshun-Panzhou expressway will help bring more visitors. The section starts at the county seat of Puding county in Anshun and ends at Panguan town in Panzhou under Liupanshui.

Yao said that his district will prioritize characteristic agricultural industries to let farmers earn more and faster.

It will build over 333 hectares of high-standard vegetable bases, cultivate 6,086 hectares of tea plants, grow 16,670 hectares of vegetables, and 9,066 hectares of high-quality fruit this year, he said, noting that it also aims to raise 320,000 pigs, 36,700 beef cattle, 39,900 sheep and 3.83 million poultry this year.

More development pillars

Li said that during the past few years in constructing roads in Liuzhi, he has come to see that the district awaits more pillars to boost its socioeconomic progress.

With the opening of the Nayong-Qinglong Expressway on Sept 26,2025 and the Liuzhi-Anlong Expressway on Sept 28, 2025, Liuzhi is able to usher in diverse industries.

Besides agricultural output, Liuzhi is rich in over 20 types of mineral resources, including coal, iron, sulfur and limestone, with confirmed coal reserves reaching 3.3 billion tons, as well as abundant coalbed methane deposits hitting some 65 billion cubic meters, Li said.

By focusing on "six major industrial chains", the whole district strives to earn more than 30 billion yuan from coal chemicals, over 30 billion yuan for new energy battery and material bases, and over 5 billion yuan for fluorine chemical bases by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, Yao said.

Last year, Liuzhi's coal production increased by 34.85 percent compared with the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period.

This year, Liuzhi will continue boosting its coal industry, focusing on expanding its current production capacity, and developing more mining areas, Yao said.

By 2030, the total economic output in Liuzhi is expected to hit 28 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 6 percent, Yao said.

That's why Liuzhi is so eager to see the expansion of local traffic network, Li said.

Rich tourism resources

Yin Shigang, Party secretary of the CREC4 project department in building the Anshun-Panzhou expressway, said Liuzhi has garnered such titles as "China's Most Beautiful Leisure Resort" and "China's Ecological Charm City" with its beautiful mountains and rivers.

Set up in the 1960s with a total area of 1,792 square kilometers, Yin said Liuzhi is the core area of the ancient Yelang Kingdom — a tribal region composed of many tribes during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), and its unique tourism integrates ethnic cultural customs, natural scenery and renowned historical sites.

Figures show that between 2021 and 2025, the district's tourism sector greeted 49 million tourists, generating revenue of 70.617 billion yuan.

With the forthcoming opening of the Anshun-Panzhou expressway, the development of Liuzhi's tourism will be faster, Yin said.

Earlier this year, Zhou Huabao drove his family from his hometown in nearby Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region for a visit to Liuzhi.

They made trips to Yanjiao ancient town, Suojia Miao ethnic ecomuseum in Suojia town, and Niuchang, attending special folk activities such as the June 6 Buyi ethnic event.

"The scenic spots in Liuzhi are very interesting," Zhou said, noting how they made a lasting and positive impression on him.

Liuzhi magistrate Yao said that with the expected operation of the Anshun-Panzhou expressway, the district will further promote the integrated development of tourism and strive to achieve a 5 percent year-on-year hike in tourism consumption.

Yin said as Liuzhi is a picturesque place with more than 40 rivers and streams, and high mountains, protecting the local environment has been a priority for them while constructing the expressway.

"During our construction work, we tried our best to maintain the original natural terrain, minimizing the impact of construction on the environment," Yin said.

Yin worked with over 2,400 employees, including 215 local ethnic minority workers who are glad with the new expressway in their hometown.