China National Highways
The China National Highways is a network of trunk roads across mainland China. Although they are called "highways", they are not necessarily freeways. However, like expressways, a toll is sometimes charged.
History
The building of highways is seen as key to accelerating infrastructure construction. In 2003, completed investment in highway construction was 350 billion yuan and 219 key highway projects progressed, focusing mainly on the five north–south and seven east–west national arterial highways as well as highways in western China and in rural areas. By the end of 2004, the total length of highways open to traffic reached 1.871 million km, including of expressways up to advanced modern transportation standard, ranking second in the world. The nation's highway density has now reached 19.5 km per 100 km2.With the completion in 2008 of the five north–south and the seven east–west national arterial highways, totaling, Beijing and Shanghai were linked by major highways, chiefly expressways, to the capitals of all provinces and autonomous regions of China, creating highway connections between over 200 cities.
The aim of the National Expressway Network Plan approved in early 2005 is an expressway system connecting all capitals of provinces and autonomous regions with Beijing and with each other, linking major cities and important counties. The network will have a total length of about, including seven originating in Beijing; the Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Taipei, Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau, Beijing-Kunming, Beijing-Lhasa, Beijing-Ürümqi, and Beijing-Harbin expressways. Half of the projects are already completed.
In 2013 the Ministry of Transport announced the "National Highway Network Planning ", which will bring the total number of highways to 119, with 81 connecting highways between them. The total mileage will be increased to, with increased focus on the western and less developed regions.
Regulation
Although an accepted speed limit on China National Highways is 100 km/h, it is common to see cars pass other by in well in excess of 100 km/h. The lack of speed detection cameras on some routes, lack of a posted speed limit outside of localities and tremendous distances of road mileage, means that enforcing this speed limit is rather herculean. In addition, there is a notable shortage of traffic police in mainland China.Nationwide highways often begin with the letter GXXX, followed by three numerals, e.g.: G107. It is said that the GXXX stands for 国家, or national.
The numbering of the highways is as follows:
- Five vertical and seven horizontal main routes were labelled in the former 000 series, although these have been deprecated in favour of the "NTHS" system.
- Highways in the 100 series begin from Beijing - the capital city of the People's Republic of China - and spread out in all compass directions, except for China National Highway 112, which originates in Xuanhua as it is a ring around Beijing.
- Highways in the 200 series stretch from north to south ;
- Highways in the 300 series stretch from east to west ;
- Highways in the 500 series are connecting roads between other national highways.
List of all China National Highways
Highways listed in are under construction or still in planning. Those listed in are currently partially finished. Those listed in were planned but never built, or have been abandoned or redesignated.Former 000 Series
Note: 000 Series China National Highways pointed to five specific vertical routes, as well as seven specific horizontal routes. Routes ending in "0" were north–south routes; routes ending in "5" were east–west routes. The new system with two to four numbers that indicate the "NTHS" system is now in use instead of the 000 Series. For the expressways' new numbering system, see Expressways of China.It seems that the old 0xx numbers are still signposted using the format GZXX, e.g. in the Qinghai province, there are signs at the G109 showing the number GZ25.
| Number | Name | English Name | Startpoint | Endpoint | Length | Notes |
| G010 | 010国道 | China National Highway 010 | Tongjiang | Sanya | Was the longest China National Highway overall. Now G1011 and part of G1, G15, G1503 and G98. | |
| G015 | 015国道 | China National Highway 015 | Suifenhe | Manzhouli | Now G10. | |
| G020 | 020国道 | China National Highway 020 | Beijing | Fuzhou | Now part of G3. | |
| G025 | 025国道 | China National Highway 025 | Dandong | Lhasa | Now part of G1113, G1 and G6. | |
| G030 | 030国道 | China National Highway 030 | Beijing | Zhuhai | Now part of G4 and G0425. | |
| G035 | 035国道 | China National Highway 035 | Qingdao | Yinchuan | Now G20. | |
| G040 | 040国道 | China National Highway 040 | Erenhot | Hekou | Now part of G55, G5 and G80, and all of G8011. | |
| G045 | 045国道 | China National Highway 045 | Lianyungang | Khorgas | Now G30. | |
| G050 | 050国道 | China National Highway 050 | Chongqing | Zhanjiang | Now part of G15 and G75. | |
| G055 | 055国道 | China National Highway 055 | Shanghai | Chengdu | Now G42. | |
| G065 | 065国道 | China National Highway 065 | Shanghai | Ruili | Now G60 and part of G56. | |
| G075 | 075国道 | China National Highway 075 | Hengyang | Kunming | Now part of G72, G80 and G78. |