As the year draws to a close, although temperatures in the mountainous areas of Longnan continue to drop, the construction site of the Kangxian West to Baihegou section of the Phase II project of the S44 Kangxian–Lueyang Expressway (Gansu section) is a scene of bustling construction activity, with builders pressing ahead with various finishing tasks in full swing, sprinting toward the full completion of the project within the year.

　　On the Hexi Corridor a thousand li away, the builders of the Wuwei–Zhangye section of the Lanzhou–Zhangye High-Speed Railway braved the severe cold, stepping up efforts to complete the annual construction tasks and striving for the early opening of this second high-speed rail corridor in the Hexi Corridor.

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　　One splendid moment after another has painted a magnificent picture of Gansu's chapter in building a country with strong transportation during the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

　　Transportation is the foundation for rejuvenating the nation and the basis for building a strong country; when transportation thrives, all industries thrive. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Gansu adhered to the strategy of "transportation first," aiming to build a comprehensive, multi-dimensional transportation network, coordinating the advancement of railway, highway, and airport construction, opening up main arteries and smoothing micro-circulation, with remarkable achievements and highlights in the province's transportation development.

　　— Highway construction reached a new level.

　　During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Gansu continued to increase investment in highway construction. It is estimated that by the end of 2025, the province's total highway mileage will reach 160,000 kilometers, of which the mileage of expressways and first-class highways in operation will reach 8,600 kilometers, an increase of 2,600 kilometers over the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. A cumulative total of 15 additional counties have gained access to expressways, bringing the number of counties and districts with expressway access in the province to 82. The proportions of counties with expressway access, townships with access to third-class and above highways, and natural villages and village groups with hardened roads reached 95%, 82%, and 96% respectively, up 17, 11, and 26 percentage points over the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

　　Over the past five years, Gansu has achieved the full connection of the Gansu sections of national expressways including G69 Yinchuan–Baise, G75 Lanzhou–Haikou, G85 Yinchuan–Kunming, and G3011 Liuyuan–Golmud. The S11 Jingchuan–Huating Expressway, the Shuangcheng–Dalijia section of the S50 Longxi–Xunhua Expressway, and the Dabanliang–Qingcheng section of the G244 line and other inter-provincial expressway corridors have been completed and put into operation.

　　From the towering mountains and ridges of Longnan to the vast Gobi Desert of Hexi, from the loess tablelands of eastern Gansu to the expansive grasslands of Gannan, one thoroughfare after another cuts through mountains and crosses rivers to link cities, and the highway network is being woven ever more densely.

　　"Four Good Rural Roads" are the "capillaries" of rural revitalization. Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the province's rural roads have reached 128,000 kilometers, an increase of about 3,000 kilometers over the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. A total of 1,438 kilometers of tourism roads, resource roads, and industrial roads have been built, enabling agricultural products to leave the mountains, tourists to enter villages, and materials to circulate, driving the accelerated formation of the province's eight major industrial clusters of "cattle, sheep, vegetables, fruit, potatoes, medicinal herbs, grain, and seeds."

　　Even more encouraging is that in 2024, our province launched the "Three Major New Expressway Corridors" project—the Northwestern Hexi, Central-Eastern Gansu, and Central-Southern Gansu corridors—with a total length of 5,430 kilometers and an estimated total investment of about 688 billion yuan, as well as the new Gansu–Sichuan corridor project, injecting even stronger momentum into the province's expressway construction. As of now, among the 66 projects, 28 projects with a total length of 2,868 kilometers and a total investment of 267.3 billion yuan have completed the bidding for concessionaires and have successively started construction.

　　— Railway construction has achieved "accelerated speed."

　　On December 29, 2022, the Yinchuan–Lanzhou High-Speed Railway was fully connected, realizing for the first time a high-speed rail link between the two provincial capitals of Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yinchuan, Ningxia, shortening the travel time between the two places to 3 hours; on July 1, 2023, the speed-up and quality-improvement project of the Lanzhou–Xining section of the Lanzhou–Xinjiang Passenger Dedicated Line was officially completed and opened to traffic, enabling the Lanzhou–Xining high-speed railway to operate at a high standard of 250 kilometers per hour, with the fastest travel time between the two places reaching 59 minutes; on June 29, 2024, the Zhongchuan Airport–Wuwei East section of the Lanzhou–Zhangye High-Speed Railway was officially opened to traffic, ending the history of no high-speed rail access in Wuwei, Tianzhu, Yongdeng, and other places...

　　Over the past five years, railway network coverage has become broader, and "a thousand li in a day" has become reality. Of the province's 14 cities and prefectures, 12 have railway access and 9 have high-speed rail access, with the railway operating mileage reaching 6,106 kilometers, an increase of 639 kilometers over 2020.

　　The provincial capital Lanzhou has become a western railway hub where 10 railway trunk lines converge, and the Lanzhou North Marshalling Station ranks among the top ten marshalling stations in the country. As of November 19, the cumulative number of China–Europe (Central Asia) freight trains passing through Lanzhou in 2025 reached 10,131, breaking the 10,000-train mark.

　　The Wuwei–Zhangye section of the Lanzhou–Zhangye High-Speed Railway, the Lanzhou–Hezuo Railway, the Pingliang–Qingyang Railway, the Tianshui–Longnan Railway... Focusing on networking, filling gaps, and strengthening chains, the province's railway "nerves" continue to extend, advancing into "blank areas."

　　— The capacity of aviation hubs has continued to improve.

　　On March 16, 2025, after more than four years and nearly 1,650 days and nights of arduous efforts, the Phase III project of Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport was declared completed and put into operation.

　　The completion of the Phase III project of Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport has basically formed a modern comprehensive transportation hub centered on Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport featuring "aviation + high-speed rail + urban rail transit + expressway," serving as a powerful footnote to Gansu's active participation in jointly building the Belt and Road, continuously strengthening civil aviation infrastructure, and striving to build an "air corridor" to the world.

　　Over the past five years, Gansu has advanced project construction with unprecedented intensity, completing a cumulative fixed asset investment of 30.58 billion yuan, an increase of 161.08% over the 11.713 billion yuan of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The province has built and put into operation a total of 9 airports and 8 general aviation airports, forming a civil aviation airport system of "one body, two wings, and multi-pole complementarity," with Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport as the core, the Hexi airport cluster of Dunhuang, Jiayuguan, Jiuquan, and others and the Hedong airport cluster of Qingyang, Longnan, and others as the two wings, and general aviation airports filling in the nodes of the chain.

　　As of now, Gansu's civil aviation has cumulatively reached 113 navigable cities, operating 224 passenger routes and 9 cargo routes, significantly enhancing Gansu's ability to connect with the world.