Over the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China has woven a more integrated expressway network with the main routes of 33 major national-level expressways largely interconnected to enhance connectivity and underpin economic growth.
By the end of 2024, China's highway mileage reached 5.49 million kilometers, up 290,000 kilometers from five years earlier. Expressways stretched for 191,000 kilometers, covering 99 percent of cities with a population of over 200,000.
Rural roads are a vital component of China's vast highway system. By the end of 2024, the overall length of rural roads was 4.64 million kilometers, accounting for nearly 85 percent of the national total.
One of the iconic road projects completed during the 14th Five-Year Plan is the world's tallest bridge, which opened to traffic last month in southwest China's Guizhou Province, slashing travel time across a deep canyon from two hours to just two minutes after three years of construction.
The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, soaring 625 meters above the Beipan River in Guizhou's mountainous terrain, is nearly nine times as tall as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
With a main span of 1,420 meters, the project has become the world's longest-span steel truss girder suspension bridge in mountainous terrain, according to Guizhou provincial authorities.
Spanning the Huajiang Grand Canyon dubbed "the Earth's crack", the 2,890-meter-long structure is the latest addition to the rapidly expanding infrastructure network of the world's second-largest economy.
To harness the economic benefits of the bridge, villagers living near the bridge upgraded their farmhouses into hotels as local authorities developed the travel sector and hosted international skydive events.
As the transportation network becomes increasingly accessible, the main artery is also growing stronger in China.
The Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, a 24-kilometer cross-sea passage in south China, has greatly enhanced connectivity in the Greater Bay Area, making travel more convenient between cities.
The mega-project, opened in June 2024, has seen over 42 million vehicles in total traffic as of Monday. The link drastically reduces the time for traveling between the city of Zhongshan and the technology hub of Shenzhen -- situated on opposite sides of the Pearl River Estuary in Guangdong Province -- from two hours to approximately 30 minutes.
The new speed has made cross-city living nothing out of the ordinary -- more than 3.7 million passenger trips on the inter-city buses now let people work in Shenzhen and sleep in Zhongshan or Guangzhou.
China weaves stronger expressway network in 14th Five-Year Plan period
South China's Guangdong Province is accelerating its transformation into an international medical tourism hub, positioning itself as a destination for patients worldwide seeking affordable, high-quality care.
The push follows a joint initiative announced in late March by nine Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Commerce, aimed at boosting spending by foreign tourists and enhancing exports of tourism services as part of broader efforts to expand the country's service sector.
Every day, some of the most complex surgeries are performed here. Li Zilun, deputy director of the division of vascular surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat‑sen University, is among the doctors capable of carrying out these intricate procedures.
He recently completed surgery on a patient with an aortic aneurysm, a condition often described as a "time bomb" in the body’s main artery, increasingly common in aging societies around the globe. Li also specializes in highly difficult and pioneering procedures, including repairing leaks caused by failed grafts.
"This was a very challenging case. And then, we implanted the covered stent to eliminate the endoleak. Actually, the outcome was pretty good. The patient will be discharged today," said Li Zilun.
The ability to handle such complex cases -- combining international techniques with domestically produced devices -- is drawing patients from around the world to seek treatment. In addition, high safety standards and low costs are also major draws.
"Our government is encouraging innovation. So, lots of physicians -- including our vascular surgeons -- we are actively involved in the innovation that helps to increase the effectiveness and safety, and also bring down the cost," said Li.
This hospital is one of the first in Guangdong to be designated by the provincial health commission as a pilot site for building an international medical service hub.
The growing number of patients has pushed the hospital to explore new ways to transform every step -- from treatment to payment and everything in between -- into a seamless experience, reducing waiting times and delivering better care for patients.
"I think it's fast. When the patient come here for just about, I think, one week, you can solve the problem," said Xiao Haipeng, president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.
The hospital is also deepening its international cooperation with top-tier medical institutions, including those at Harvard University.
"Not just for China, for the whole globe, we are facing health care challenges -- emerging infectious disease and chronic, lung infectious diseases, and also the aging population, also the shortage of healthcare workforce," said Xiao.
In response to these challenges, China is promoting its own solutions, including aggressive innovation in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven workflows, while stepping up research and development investment and global engagement along the way.
"In recent years, the innovation in Western medicine is dramatically growing. An example of my hospital -- in the past few years, we have 140 innovations and seven of them are international leading innovations," said Xiao.
As global demand for medical tourism grows, China is positioning itself as a new destination. Official data shows that the number of foreign patients in Guangdong increased by 20 percent last year. Among them, the growth in inpatient admissions was even faster, rising by 76 percent.
Guangdong fast-tracks pilot for int'l medical service hub
