Xi'an Builds Regional Transportation Hub

Xi'an, the capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is famous for its historical sites and cultural legacy, including the world-famous Terracotta Warriors.

Xi'an was also the starting point of the ancient Silk Road trade route that linked the East and the West hundreds of years ago.

Now the ambitious city has begun to revive its glory as an international transportation hub.

Chen Zhe has more.

More than 3.2 million tourists have flocked to Xi'an during the past weeklong National Day holiday periods, a 40 percent increase compared with a year earlier.

But the ancient city is not satisfied with only being a hot tourism destination. Now Xi'an is making efforts to build itself into an international platform to facilitate both business and cultural exchanges.

Hui Xilu is Vice Director of the Xi'an Urban Planning Bureau.

"One of our goals is to build Xi'an into a regional trade and logistics center in western China. And then, building an international transportation hub will be one of the priorities for our further development."

To achieve that goal, large-scale construction has begun in the city, and an inland port is being built in eastern Xi'an.

"We are building an international trade and logistics park in Xi'an. We plan to build it into the largest port in China's inland area and the largest logistics center along the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River."

Hui Xilu says the completion of the trade and logistics park will greatly boost the development of local economy.

Meanwhile in the northern part of Xi'an, hundreds of workers are busy building a new railway station where several high-speed railways will converge.

Zhang Jiahua is chief of the construction site.

"The high-speed railway linking Zhengzhou and Xi'an [and] the intercity rail linking Baoji and Xi'an will soon be joined at the northern station. In the future, the station will serve as the terminus for the high-speed railway between Xi'an and Chengdu and another one linking Datong and Xi'an."

Zhang says the new railway station is an important part of Xi'an's transportation network and will make the city a regional transportation hub.

The Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway was put into operation earlier this year, the first of its kind in central and western China. Over the next 10 years, more high-speed railways and intercity railways will be built in western China as part of the effort to promote the development of the country's west.

For CRI, this is Chen Zhe.