Plan to tailor new routes for road trips

China plans to develop about 60,000 kilometers of routes specifically tailored for road trips by 2030, linking some of the country's best-known landscapes and cultural sites while improving services for travelers, the Ministry of Transport announced on Monday.

The national network will largely make use of existing highways and connect major tourist attractions, cultural landmarks and scenic areas. At its core will be three loops, four east-west routes and five north-south routes.

The loops will consist of routes along China's border and coastal areas, one around the capital metropolitan region, and another through Qinghai and Gansu provinces.

The east-west routes will take in areas associated with the Great Wall, the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, as well as the high-altitude landscapes of western China. The north-south routes will feature the Grand Canal, world heritage sites in eastern China, mountain scenery in Central China, sites associated with the Long March and historic travel routes.

According to the ministry, the network will include long-distance routes crossing provincial boundaries, complemented by locally developed itineraries tailored to regional attractions and travel demand.

The plan goes beyond the roads themselves. It calls for better rest areas, viewing points and safety facilities, along with more charging stations, roadside repair services and car rental options at airports, railway stations and other transport hubs.

Local authorities are also encouraged to develop camping, educational trips, sporting events and other activities along the routes, making the journey itself a bigger part of the tourism experience.

The initiative comes as road trips account for a large share of domestic travel.

During this year's nine-day Spring Festival holiday in February, an average of nearly 270 million passenger trips were made by private vehicles each day, up 8.3 percent year-on-year and accounting for 86 percent of all passenger trips, according to the Ministry of Transport.

An average of about 650,000 small passenger vehicles were rented each day during the holiday period, up 15 percent from the previous year.

Vice-Minister of Transport Xu Chengguang said at a news conference in July that developing routes for road travelers and making car rentals more widely available would be among the ministry's priorities during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30).

The ministry will "develop routes for self-drive travel and expand the coverage of car rental services", Xu said. He added that more rental outlets would be established near airports and high-speed railway stations to enable travelers to arrive by air or rail and continue their journeys by car. The ministry is also encouraging cheaper or free one-way returns for rental vehicles.

Liu Dong, an official with the ministry's department of comprehensive planning, said at a policy briefing in February that road trips had emerged as a new source of tourism spending, with some highways becoming attractions in their own right.

He said the ministry planned to make greater use of national and provincial highways to develop longer routes spanning multiple regions, while improving connections between highways and tourist attractions and upgrading services along the way.

For some families, road trips have already become an annual tradition. A woman surnamed Pan from Northeast China said she travels by car with her family to different parts of the country every year, with her daughter or other family members taking turns behind the wheel.

"Traveling by car is very convenient now. The roads are good and the service areas are comfortable, which makes it a good option for families," she said.

Better charging infrastructure is also making long-distance road travel easier, particularly for electric vehicle owners.

An EV owner surnamed Xu said drivers now have less reason to worry about finding a place to recharge their vehicles than they did several years ago. Charging stations have become easier to locate and much more widely available along major roads.

"Now there's almost always a charging station nearby," he said.

By 2035, the ministry aims to have a more complete national network in place, with better services, stronger safety support and a wider range of tourism and leisure options for road travelers.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn