(ECNS) -- China's high-speed rail network will cover more than 113 large cities, and new civil airports will be built in about 50 cities, according to the country's 13th Five-year Plan (2016-20) for transport development set forth by the State Council.
China will also build 150 comprehensive passenger transport hubs to facilitate integrated and seamless travel within and between different transportation modes.
By 2020, high-speed rail will be available in more than 80 percent of Chinese cities with permanent urban populations of more than 1 million, while railways, express highways and civil airports will cover all cities with permanent urban populations of more than 200,000.
Under the plan, more than 50 new civil airports will be built, boosting the total number to 260 from 207 in 2015.
In addition, China will accelerate the construction of 36 expressways. By 2020, the country's operating highways will reach 4.58 million kilometers, a huge increase that will include 22,000 kilometers of new expressways.
At the end of 2015, high-speed railways in operation topped 19,000 kilometers. Together with other railways they formed an express passenger transport network extending more than 40,000 kilometers, which covered virtually all capital cities and cities with more than 500,000 residents.
