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Hubei, as an important traffic hinge of the nation, has very convenient traffic conditions and highways, waterways, flight courses and telecommunication network which extend to all directions.
This province has a large and intense basic transportation network. By 2008, Hubei recorded a total highway mileage of 188, 366 kilometers, with a density of 101.3 kilometer per hundred square kilometers. 15 national highways of 5, 885 km, 129 provincial highway of 11, 030 km, 164 special lanes of 1, 460 km were running across this area. 81.6 percent was Classed highways of 153, 665 km, including freeways, Grade 1 highways, Grade 2 highways, Grade 3,4 highways 2, 719 km, 1, 566 km, 16,043 km and 133, 337 km respectively. 23, 000 highway bridges, 320, 000 commercial vehicles was in service in Hubei. By 2008, there are passenger cars to all the counties and villages and 88.06 percent of the administrative villages (several small natural villages can form an administrative village for better governance).
Length of navigable inland waterways in Hubei was 8, 385 km by 2008, with classed navigation channel 5, 843km. In 2008, the total waterway cargo transport volume and cargo turnover hit 127 million and 160 million tons, up by 40 percent and 77 percent year-on-year. Container thoroughfare increased by 20 percent year-on-year to 587,000 TEU.
2008 witnessed a flourishing year of Hubei civil aviation with its aviation reforms. The yearly passenger thoroughfare recorded at 10 million people. The airplane trips reached 91, 000 and the total flight hour in 2008 exceeded 4,000 hours, up 29 percent than last year.
A new airline company joined Wuhan airport. Two airline company resumed operation in Hubei’s capital Wuhan, thus making it a total of 21 airlines operating in the city. 50 cities are linked to Wuhan by normal route flights.
Telecommunication keeps its momentum in 2008. The total business volume reached 67.81billion yuan, up 23.3 percent than last year. Telephone subscriber added 4,879,000 to 37,074,000 on last year alone. Broadband internet users increased by 18 percent, 436,000 to 2,864,000.
The telecommunication infrastructure investment in Hubei exceeded ten billion yuan for the first time and reached 10.44 billion yuan, up 34 percent from last year. The length of optical cable in 2008 was 259, 800 km, up 26.9 percent from last year.