Transportation in Fujian

The province has worked to improve its infrastructure; adding 166 kilometers of new roads and 155 kilometers of railways.

Road
There are 54,876 kilometers of highways including 727 kilometers of expressways. The top infrastructure projects in recent years have been the Zhangzhou-Zhaoan Expressway  and the Sanmingshi-Fuzhou expressway. For its 11th five-year plan spanning 2006 to 2010, the province aims to double the length of its expressways to 2,450 kilometers.

Railways
Rail lines connect Fuzhou and Xiamen with the national network. The Fujian section of the Ganzhou-Longyan railway and the Wenzhou-Fuzhou railway, have received an investment of US$465 million and US$596 million respectively. In order to attract Taiwanese investment, the province intends to increase its rail length by 50 percent to 2,500 kilometers.

Air
The major airports are Fuzhou Changle International Airport, Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, Quanzhou Jinjiang Airport, Nanping Wuyishan Airport and Longyan Airport. Fuzhou is capable of handling 6.5 million passengers annually with a cargo capacity of more than 200,000 tons. The airport offers direct links to 45 destinations including international routes to Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Fuzhou Transportation
Airports
The city is served by two airports: Fuzhou Changle International Airport and Fuzhou Yixu Airport (old airfield). The former is its main international airport and a air-hub in the southeast China, the latter one was turned into a PLA airbase after 1997.

Railways
Currently, the main railway is the "Wai Fu Railway", running eastwards through the northern districts towards Jiangxi province. The subline "Fuma railway" runs from the city hub to Mawei district. Two more railways are also under construction: The "Wen Fu railway" runs north towards Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang province, while the "Fuxia railway" runs south towards Xiamen. This later railway is designed to be a high-speed railway with speeds up to 200 km and will be completed by early July 2009. There are also plans for 2 metro lines, with the first line to be completed by 2014.

Railway stations: The Fuzhou Rail Station is located north of city center, near the North Second Ring Road. Construction on the Strait Rail Station in Cangshan district, a key landmark of the New City development scheme, began in 2007 and is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

Seaport
The dock in Luoyuan Bay of Fuzhou, China. The construction of a new industrial park is still going on there.

In 1867 the Fuzhou seaport was the site of one of China's first major experiments with Western technology, when the Fuzhou Navy Yard was established: A shipyard and an arsenal were built under French guidance and a naval school was opened. A naval academy was also established at the shipyard, and it became a center for the study of European languages and technical sciences. The academy, which offered courses in English, French, engineering, and navigation, produced a generation of Western-trained officers, including the famous scholar-reformer Yan Fu (1854–1921).

The yard was established as part of a program to strengthen China in the wake of the country's disastrous defeat the second Opium War (1856–60). But most talented students continued to pursue a traditional Confucian education, and by the mid-1870s the government began to lose interest in the shipyard, which had trouble securing funds and declined in importance. Fuzhou remained essentially a commercial center and a port until World War II; it had relatively little industry. The port was occupied by the Japanese during 1940–45.

Since 1949, Fuzhou has grown considerably. Transportation has been improved by the dredging of the Min River for navigation by medium-sized craft upstream to Nanping. In 1956 the railway linking Fuzhou with the interior of the province and with the main Chinese railway system began operation. The port has also been improved; Fuzhou itself is no longer accessible to seagoing ships, but Luoxingta anchorage and the outer harbor at Guantou on the coast of the East China Sea have been modernized and improved. The chief exports are timber, fruits, paper, and foodstuffs.

Xiamen  Transportation
A ferry to Gulangyu Island
Xiamen is served by the Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, the base of Xiamen Airlines.

Currently, there are nine Asian cities that have direct flights to Xiamen. They are Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and Bangkok. Cities outside China's mainland that have direct flights to Xiamen are Hong Kong and Macau which are situated on Guangdong province's southern border.
mainland.

The Xiamen Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system [8] is the main form of mass transit in Xiamen. It is a bus-only closed road system with stations and ticketing system similar to the light-rail system. Most parts of the 115 km BRT system are bus lanes along expressways, with specially constructed elevated roadways in the downtown area. There is no traffic light along the entire BRT system. The maximum speed of the buses is limited by design to 60 km/h. Five BRT routes are currently in service, namely BRT-1 Route,BRT-2 Route, Huandao Avenue BRT Route, Chenggong Avenue BRT Route, and Connecting BRT Route. The fare is 0.6 RMB per km for the air-conditioned buses. The BRT is supplemented by 20 shuttle bus services that connect nearby places to the BRT stations. The shuttle bus service has a flat rate of 0.5 RMB. There is some discount for the fares if pre-paid e-card is used.

Taxis are common and can be easily hailed in most areas of the city.

Many people in the city also ride bicycles to get from place to place. Unlike in most Chinese cities, where motorcycles and mopeds are the major form of transportation, such vehicles are not allowed in Xiamen. Using car horns is also banned.

Infrastructure
Xiamen has a well-developed system of railway and highway transportation links with the rest of China. It has established economic and trade relations with 162 countries and regions worldwide. In the last few years, Xiamen has invested more than RMB30 billion in infrastructure construction.

Road
There are two major bridges linking Xiamen island that allows easy access to highway traffic and transportation. The Fuzhou-Xiamen and Zhangzhou-Xiamen highways link Xiamen with every part of Fujian province and with provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Zhejiang. There are also container freight services available between Xiamen and Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Railways
Xiamen is connected to all parts of the country through the Yingtan-Xiamen railway, which is linked to the nationwide railway network. There are direct passenger services available between Xiamen and Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Fuzhou, Nanchang and Yingtan. In addition to the Xiamen Railway Station, the Xiamen North Railway Station, in Gaoqi has been extended for the transport of import and export goods.

Air
With 62 air routes, the Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport is a main air hub in East China with flights to a number of destinations in Asia and most large domestic cities. It can handle a total of 6.28 million passengers and 201,300 tons of cargo.

Xiamen Port
Port is one of the top ten ports in China. It is a huge, deepwater, ice-free port that never silts up. Xiamen Port is located on Xiamen Island which is at the mouth of the Jiulong River. It has an excellent natural harbour and is well connected to the mainland. The natural coastline in the port area is 64.5 km while the water is over 12 m indepth. There are 81 berths of big, medium or small tonnage, including 16 deep-water berths, of which 6 operate containers of over 10,000 tonnes. 100 000 t ships can berth straight at the inner port, while 50 000 t ships can pull in for loading and unloading. Currently, Xiamen port has navigation routes to Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Kaohsiung and Singapore. Xiamen has recently opened ocean routes to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe and the Americas. In 2000, the cargo throughput at the port was 19.65 million tons, an increase of 10.82% over the previous year; the container throughput reached 108.46 million TEUs, up by 27.83% from the previous year.