Guangyuan section of Lingshan Mountain Highway, in Datong, on Oct 13 [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Transportation into and out of the city of Datong, Shanxi province has improved a great deal in recent years, bringing economic benefits to the suburbs and rural parts of the city, for example, the popular Tangtou Hot Spring Resort, which used to take 3 hours to get to by car from the city center but now, thanks to the Lingshan Mountain Highway, only takes an hour.

The city now has 550-kilometer network of highways that links each village to the city with a greatly expanded handling capacity and, this year, the city has 27 rural highway projects. So far, it has spent 260 million yuan ($4 million) estimation of 150 km of highways.

The city's first highway was the Beijing-Datong Highway, which went into use in 2000 and has put much of the outlying area within one-hour of the city center.

During the highway expansion, the city has paid attention to road maintenance, allocating 10 million yuan for it annually, and villagers have been encouraged to work on road care so that the city can save resources and increase the income of locals. And, by maintaining the road surfaces and related facilities, such as signs and greening, the government expects to extend the life of its roads.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw