Expansion of rural roads set to continue

According to the Ministry of Transport, China's rural road network now extends 4.35 million kilometers, accounting for about 84 percent of the total road network.

From 2016 to 2020, China built or rebuilt more than 1.4 million km of rural roads.

By 2035, the length of the rural road network will exceed 5 million km, according to a development blueprint released by the ministry on March 3.

By the end of 2019, most villages and towns had access to asphalt roads, and they were covered by bus services by August last year.

"For thousands of years, China's rural residents were covered with dirt when traveling on sunny days and with mud on rainy days. But the past is past.

Rural residents now have access to asphalt roads and buses," Yang Chuantang, the ministry's Party chief, told China Media Group.

Ministry spokesman Sun Wenjian said it's a great achievement. Seventy-two years ago, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the country had only 80,800 km of rural roads, and only 30,000 km were paved, Sun said.