History of transport in China

In the twenty-five years that followed the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, China's transportation network was built into a partially modern but somewhat inefficient system.

Though despite increased investment and development in the 1980s, the transport sector was strained by the rapid expansion of production and the exchange of goods.

China's canal system, whose greatest accomplishment was the Sui dynasty's 1,794-kilometer (1,115 mi) 7th-century Grand Canal between Hangzhou and Beijing, was an essential aspect of its civilization, used for irrigation, flood control, taxation, commercial and military transport, and colonization of new lands from the Zhou dynasty until the end of the imperial era.

Beginning in 1960 the network of navigable inland waterways decreased because of the construction of dams and irrigation works and the increasing sedimentation.

The central government set out to overhaul the inefficient inland waterway system and called upon localities to play major roles in managing and financing most of the projects.

By 1984 China's longest river, the Yangtze River, with a total of 70,000 kilometers of waterways open to shipping on its main stream and 3,600 kilometers on its tributaries, became the nation's busiest shipping lane, carrying 72 percent of China's total waterborne traffic.

The canal promoted the flow of goods between Anhui and neighboring provinces and helped to develop the Huai River Plain, one of China's major grain-producing areas.

The main shipbuilding and repairing bases of Shanghai, Dalian, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Wuhan had 14 berths for 10,000-ton-class ships and 13 docks.

The inadequacy of port and harbor facilities was a longstanding problem for China but has become a more serious obstacle because of increased foreign trade.

The more than 9 million passengers and 102,000 tons of freight traffic represented a 40 percent growth over the previous year.

CAAC had 274 air routes, including 33 international flights to 28 cities in 23 countries, such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagasaki, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Frankfurt, East Berlin, Zurich, Moscow, Istanbul, Manila, Bangkok, Singapore, Sydney, and Hong Kong.

The government had bilateral air service agreements with more than 40 countries and working relations with approximately 386 foreign airline companies.

In a bid to improve CAAC's services, more ticket offices were opened in major cities for domestic and international flights.