Chinese expressways and highways

[SkyPesos]

Fujian is a poor province?

Yes, it's a common thought from richer areas like the Yangtze and Pearl River delta areas that Fujian is a poor province. But for tourism, Xiamen is much more popular destination than Fuzhou for both Chinese and foreigners, so maybe they have pinyin on their freeway BGS before Fuzhou did. The old control city BGS in Fujian is like what I sent earlier in the thread:

[TheGrassGuy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_auxiliary_NTHS_Expressways#List_of_Provincial_expressways_that_wrongly_use_NTHS-like_codes

I'm noticing a lot of 2019 and above expressways and I can't even remember if I factored them in

[TheGrassGuy]

Check out Chengdu provincial ring expressways if you don't like numbers

[Plutonic Panda]

Pretty amazing video. China really is an incredible country. I've never even heard of many of these cities yet their infrastructure is marveling.

[Rothman]

Pretty amazing video. China really is an incredible country. I've never even heard of many of these cities yet their infrastructure is marveling.

As I have heard from multiple people, including my parents who lived in China for a while, China is very good at building, but not so much at maintaining.  Another friend of mine who lived there said, after they built that one particularly high suspension bridge, "Better drive over it now rather than in 10 years..."

[TheGrassGuy]

Pretty amazing video. China really is an incredible country. I've never even heard of many of these cities yet their infrastructure is marveling.

As I have heard from multiple people, including my parents who lived in China for a while, China is very good at building, but not so much at maintaining.  Another friend of mine who lived there said, after they built that one particularly high suspension bridge, "Better drive over it now rather than in 10 years..."

Chongqing is a very hilly city. Reminds me of Pittsburgh in terms of terrain.

[Chris]

The Chinese expressway system is built in a national grid, with the addition of seven radial routes of Beijing: G1 to G7.

G7 is the newest addition, originally there were six radial routes. G7 runs from Beijing to Ürümqi and is also called the Jingxin Expressway (Beijing - Xinjiang Expressway).

An 1,100 kilometer stretch of expressway opened simultaneously in 2017 between Bayannur, Inner Mongolia and Kumul, Xinjiang. This is the longest single highway opening ever in the world.

This stretch runs through extremely remote terrain in western Inner Mongolia, northern Gansu and eastern Xinjiang, with no historic road preceding it, so it only made sense to open it in its entirety as it would otherwise go nowhere. G7 traverses isolated desert and mountain ranges, just south of Mongolia.

Here are some photos of this stretch of expressway. I wonder what the traffic volumes are, I doubt if it is more than 1,000 vehicles per day, maybe even less.

[andrepoiy]

Built for "national unity" over any usefulness

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I call it the "Middle of Nowhere expressway" due to obvious reasons. I gave it that name while it was still in the planning stages. Several of the distances between exits are really crazy: If you miss the Aogandelige exit (exit 1344) going West the next one is over 90 miles (147 km to be exact) away, already approaching Ejin Banner.

[TheGrassGuy]

Typical China

[Chris]

China has an expressway that runs within a mile of a glacier.

This is G0615 Dema Expressway (Delingha - Ma'erkang Expressway) in Qinghai province. It runs through extremely remote mountain terrain, with two mountain passes in excess of 4,400 meters above sea level.

The glacier (location)

[bing101]

Here is a roadgeek tour in China. 

[bing101]

Here is a tour from Shenzhen. 

[TheGrassGuy]

Here is a tour from Shenzhen.

Thanks for sharing! I notice Chinese roadgeek content has increased and proliferated massively since when I first got into it.

[bing101]

Here is a tour from Shenzhen.

Thanks for sharing! I notice Chinese roadgeek content has increased and proliferated massively since when I first got into it.

Shenzhen especially given that they are viewed as the country's version of Austin and San Jose.

[Chris]

An extension of S36 Zhuhai - Taishan Expressway opened to traffic today in Guangdong province.

It includes an 11.9 kilometer bridge across the bay of the Huangmao River, which has several cable-stayed spans.

This is the location: https://www.google.com/maps/@22.0284436,113.0796716,15454m/data=!3m1!1e3

[bing101]

Here is the tour on the Hong Kong to Macau Bridge. 

[Chris]

A second expressway from Chongqing to Youyang has been constructed. It's mostly open to traffic now. It runs parallel to the older and lower standard G65 Baomao Expressway.

The new expressway is built partially with six lanes and at a more consistent elevation, so it has a very large number of tunnels, in Chinese lingo they call this the 'bridge/tunnel ratio', how much of a route is on bridges or in tunnels. In this case, 80% of the route is on bridges or in tunnels, which is one of the highest for a longer route in China.

This is the Shuangbao Bridge, a twin-span arch bridge with a 2 x 405 meter span. The bridge spans two canyons and is 301 meters (988 ft) high according to 'Highestbridges'. Before the 2010s there were very few bridges of that height, now there are many dozens across the interior of China.

[mrsman]

That bridge is amazing.   Almost floating in the air.  Thanks for sharing.

[vdeane]

Out of Spec Motoring just uploaded a roadtrip video from China.

[TheGrassGuy]

I have to say, coverage of China's expressways has seriously upgraded over the years, especially if you look on Chinese sites like Bilibili. When I was first going to China as a kid in 2011, I was so dismayed at the sheer dearth of roadgeek content and even street view.

[TheGrassGuy]

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/chn-china-road-infrastructure-%E2%80%A2-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E9%AB%98%E9%80%9F.232957/

Another forum on Chinese expressways that I wasn't previously aware of.

Not sure if this has been pointed out, but the new G9910 uses the entirety of G0511.