Shaanxi, an inland province in Northwest China, plans to invest 10.4 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in road construction in 2002 to improve its highway system.

"The investment will be used for the construction of 1,200 kilometres of road, of which 110 kilometres will be highways," said Wu Xiaojian, director of Shaanxi Provincial Communications Department.

Wu said a number of road projects, such as the road linking Xi'an, the capital, with Hanzhong, a major city in southern Shaanxi, the Huangling-Yan'an Highway and the Changda Tunnel in Zhongnan Mountain, will form a road network in Shaanxi, which will make the inland province more accessible to other parts of the country.

"And we will also see that every county in the province has a paved link with the main road network so that even counties in remote mountainous regions will have easy access to the outside," Wu said.

Shaanxi has named its target "one-day communication," meaning that it will only take about eight hours to get from Xi'an to the capital cities of nearby provinces, such as Zhengzhou in Henan, Wuhan in Hubei, Lanzhou in Gansu, Taiyuan in Shanxi, and to Chongqing Municipality, Wu said.

"At present, passenger service has started on the highway linking Xi'an and Zhengzhou, and we will try our best to establish other such connections," the director said.