Expressways link up cities, villages in mountainous areas

Located in the southwest of China, Yunnan province has crisscross mountains and deep river gorges in between. For a long time, mountainous landscape makes transportation slow in Yunnan.

Since expressways were built up, the transport network has bridged cities and villages in the mountainous areas. Here are four representative expressways in the province.　

Baolu Highway

The Baoshan-Lushui highway has a total length of is 85.17 kilometers, and it officially opened to traffic on Dec. 30 in 2020. Hidden among the deep mountains in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture known as a “mysterious realm”, the highway ended up the history of no highway and set many records in Yunnan.

The Nujiang bridge is currently the largest steel box girdle suspension in Yunnan Province extending 1.33-kilometer. This marks a key transport progress from a ropeway to a steel bridge, benefiting the well-being pursuit for all the ethnic groups.

Molin Highway

The Mojiang-Lincang highway has the total length of is 236 kilometers, and it officially opened to traffic on Jan. 13 in 2021. Located in the southwest of Yunnan Province, bordering Myanmar, Lingcang City used to be land locked by humongous mountains.

Now it has the first expressway connecting Lincang to the outside world, forming part of the expressway ring in southwestern Yunnan.

The Mojiang-lincang Highway shortens travel time between Lincang to Kunming from 8 hours to 4 hours. After Molin Highway connected to the Lingcang-Qingshuihe highway which directly reaches Qingshuihe, the port on the border of Burma, their operation is expected to boost joint economic development and opening-up of the border areas.

Dali-Lijiang Highway

The Dali-Lijiang highway spans majestically across the landscape of snow mountains, the Erhai lake and other tourist attractions along the way. At 259 kilometers long, the expressway opened to traffic on Dec 30 and it is the most popular tourist name card to Yunnan.

SiXiao Highway 

As the first tropical forest expressway and the only 2A-level tourist scenic expressway in China, the Simao-Xiaomengyang highway links up the Yunnan localities of Pu’er and Xishuangbanna, forming part of the Kunming-Bangkok highway. During construction of the highway, the environmental protection was maximized, accomplishing sustainable development.

Source: Xinhua; Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi