In the five years since the issuance of the "Outline for Building a Leading Transportation Nation," China's comprehensive transportation strength has risen substantially. The total mileage of the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network has exceeded 6 million kilometers, and the comprehensive transport network running east-west and north-south has become more complete. China's transportation sector is steadily advancing toward the vision of "smooth travel for people and smooth flow of goods."

　　"6 Axes, 7 Corridors, 8 Channels" under accelerated construction

　　The "6 Axes, 7 Corridors, 8 Channels" constitute the main framework of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network as defined in the "Outline of the National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transportation Network Plan." The "6 Axes" refer to the main channels between the four economic growth poles—the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone—and are also the country's main transportation arteries; the "7 Corridors" mainly refer to seven corridors including the Western Land-Sea Corridor; and the "8 Channels" refer to eight channels including the border channels.

　　As of the end of last year, China's railway operating mileage reached 159,000 kilometers, including more than 45,000 kilometers of high-speed rail; the national highway mileage stood at 5,436,800 kilometers, including 183,600 kilometers of expressways; inland waterway navigable mileage was 128,200 kilometers, including 15,400 kilometers of Class III and above waterways; port production berths totaled 22,023, including 2,878 berths of 10,000-ton class and above; and the total number of civil transport airports was 259, including 38 transport airports with annual passenger throughput of 10 million person-times or more and 63 transport airports with cargo and mail throughput of 10,000 tons or more.

　　According to reports, the main framework of the "6 Axes, 7 Corridors, 8 Channels" has basically taken shape, covering more than 80% of the country's counties and serving about 90% of the national economy and population.

　　Overall, China's infrastructure construction has produced remarkable results, and tremendous achievements have been made in the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network, especially in the main framework and main arteries. However, it should also be noted that there remain many shortcomings in transportation construction. For example, the development of conventional railways still has weaknesses, the capacity of inter-regional expressway channels needs improvement, inland waterway construction and connectivity of the water transport system remain insufficient, and the radiating capacity of comprehensive hubs is not yet strong.

　　Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng stated that the next step will be to accelerate the construction of the main framework of the "6 Axes, 7 Corridors, 8 Channels" and build demonstration corridors; deepen the implementation of the national comprehensive freight hub reinforcement and chain-strengthening initiative; and advance a series of major construction projects, including the railway freight network project, the national highway connectivity and quality improvement project, and the inland water transport system connectivity project. "In general, we will accelerate the removal of bottlenecks and blockages to make new contributions to smoothing the circulation of the national economy."

　　Rural transport service levels improved

　　As of the end of last year, China's total rural road mileage had reached 4.6 million kilometers. Rural road construction plays an important role in improving people's travel and quality of life. The construction of "Four Good Rural Roads" has made important contributions to poverty alleviation and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

　　China has a vast territory and widely distributed rural areas with uneven levels of development. "Rural roads are the infrastructure with the widest coverage, the largest served population, the most universal service provision, and the strongest public welfare nature," Li Xiaopeng said. He stated that policies and regulations will be further improved, the formulation of the "Rural Road Regulations" will be accelerated, and the "15th Five-Year Plan for Highway Development" will be compiled at a faster pace, so as to continuously consolidate the "four beams and eight pillars" of the rural road institutional system.

　　Rural roads must be well built, and also well managed, well maintained, and well operated. Implementing the rural road "road chief system" is an important guarantee for accelerating the improvement of rural road governance capacity. Li Xiaopeng stated that governance capacity will be further enhanced, reform of the rural road management and maintenance system will be deepened, the long-term operating mechanism of the "road chief system" will be improved, and the momentum and vitality for high-quality development of "Four Good Rural Roads" will be continuously stimulated.

　　It is reported that the Ministry of Transport will implement a new round of rural road improvement actions, including eight major improvement actions: road network improvement, safety improvement, transport improvement, governance capacity improvement, travel service improvement, beautiful and harmonious countryside improvement, industry support improvement, and employment and income growth improvement.

　　Today, convenient postal and express delivery services have become an indispensable part of people's lives. With the continuous improvement of rural road construction and the ongoing development of county-township-village delivery logistics distribution systems, rural areas have basically achieved full coverage of express delivery services. At the same time, however, rural areas still face the "last mile" problem of delivering express parcels to villages.

　　Zhao Chongjiu, Director of the State Post Bureau, stated that the postal and express delivery industry is door-to-door logistics. In the transportation process, trunk-line transport is important, and terminal transport is also very important. Clearing the "last mile" of logistics can enhance people's sense of well-being, unleash rural consumption potential, and boost county economic development.

　　It is understood that the State Post Bureau has actively served modern agriculture and implemented the "one station per village" project, having cumulatively built more than 1,200 county-level public delivery service centers and more than 300,000 village-level comprehensive delivery logistics service stations. The express delivery network has become an important channel for agricultural products to leave villages and enter cities and for consumer goods to go to the countryside and enter villages.

　　Ninghai County, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, has made useful explorations in deepening the integration of passenger, freight, and postal services, improving the county-township-village rural logistics service system, and striving to solve the problem of high terminal costs in rural logistics.

　　The local government has joined hands with postal companies, express delivery enterprises, and public transport enterprises to build a new rural logistics service system, changing part of the rural logistics chain from three levels to two. At the same time, it pioneered "bus postal routes" and "bus mailboxes," customized 63 passenger-freight-postal buses, and made full use of the advantage that urban-rural buses "reach every village" and the spare capacity of buses to deliver express parcels to villages, clearing the "last mile" of urban-rural logistics. As of the end of last year, Ninghai County had opened 20 bus postal routes, with buses carrying 4.465 million items; the rate of express delivery to villages rose from 55% in 2020 to 100%, reducing rural logistics costs by more than 20%.

　Logistics costs across society reduced

　　Reducing logistics costs across society is an important measure for improving economic efficiency. Last year, China's total social logistics costs were 18.2 trillion yuan, a ratio of 14.4% to GDP, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous year, showing a steady downward trend.

　　Transportation and logistics are a key area for effectively reducing logistics costs across society. In recent years, China has achieved positive results in reducing logistics costs and improving quality and efficiency. China has built the world's largest high-speed railway network, expressway network, largest port cluster, and largest postal and express delivery network, which have played an important supporting role in logistics development.

　　Last year, China completed about 150 million tons of cargo transport per day and handled 445 million postal and express items per day, maintaining a relatively high efficiency in cargo transport and circulation. At the same time, the transport structure has been continuously optimized. Last year, the share of railway and waterway freight volume in total freight volume increased by 1.4 and 3 percentage points, respectively, compared with 2017, indicating continued optimization and improvement of the transport structure.

　　Multimodal transport effectively reduces logistics costs. Ningbo Zhoushan Port innovated the "single document" multimodal transport system, achieving full-process logistics services for sea-rail intermodal transport featuring "one-time entrustment, one quotation, one document to the end, and one invoice for settlement," reducing logistics costs by about 500 yuan per container on average.

　　In recent years, Cainiao Network Technology Co., Ltd. has widely applied digital and intelligent technologies throughout all links of the cross-border logistics chain. In the transit hubs of air cargo stations and overseas distribution centers, technologies such as AGV robots, automated sorting belts, unmanned forklifts, and digital customs clearance are widely used, shortening end-to-end logistics between key countries and regions from 60 days to 10 days and reducing parcel sorting costs by nearly 50%; the intelligent order consolidation engine uses big data algorithms to accurately identify order parcels of the same overseas consumer across different stores on the platform, package multiple orders into one parcel for delivery, and reduce cross-border logistics costs by 15% to 20%.

　　However, compared with developed countries, China still has considerable room for improvement in reducing logistics costs. For example, the operating costs of the entire logistics chain remain relatively high, the efficiency of resource allocation and circulation still needs further improvement, and the adjustment of the transport structure and the development of multimodal transport need to be further deepened.

　　Fei Dongbin, Director of the National Railway Administration, stated that the adjustment of the transport structure will be deepened, bulk commodity transport will be shifted from road to rail, railway dedicated lines will be extended into docks, parks, and factories and mines, and rail-water intermodal transport, high-speed rail freight, and cold-chain transport will be vigorously developed to reduce logistics costs across society.

　　Li Xiaopeng stated that the next step will be to give greater play to the comparative advantages of various transport modes, using road where road is suitable, rail where rail is suitable, water where water is suitable, and air where air is suitable, continuously promote multimodal transport, advance railway dedicated lines into port areas, parks, and factory areas, and improve the combined efficiency of comprehensive transport.