Canggui Road in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, is among the province’s first batch of officially designated cycling-friendly highways. As the plum rain fades in July, the mountain-and-stream thoroughfare enters its most picturesque season of the year. Lush green mountains rise steeply on both sides, clear brooks gurgle through the valleys, and ancient villages scatter along the watercourses. The Yue Opera Town along the route echoes with melodious arias, while steaming soup dumplings fresh out of steamers fill workshops in the local snack industrial park.
Heading south along Canggui Road, standardized cycling rest stops, clear directional signs and dedicated bicycle parking bays line the highway, long established as regular supply and check-in spots for cycling enthusiasts.
Beside a hundred-mu lotus pond in Puyu Village of Guimen Township, Mu Yi, operator of the coffee shop Lotus Coffee, is one cycling lover who settled here thanks to the road. “I’ve ridden all the country lanes in Shengzhou. One summer I cycled along Canggui Road and fell in love with this lotus pond at first sight. The pavement is smooth and the scenery stunning. After observing the spot for more than two years, I opened this coffee shop facing the lotus blooms.”
Since opening in May last year, foot traffic at the shop has grown steadily, with over one hundred cups of coffee sold daily, surging to two or three hundred on weekends and holidays — far exceeding Mu Yi’s initial expectations.
More than just drawing constant streams of visitors, a cycling-friendly highway extends the entire rural consumption chain. The road links the lotus pond café, characteristic agriculture and boutique homestays as one thread, making scattered mountain-side resources visible and viable, and enabling a smooth micro-circulation of the rural economy.
Such landscapes nestled amid Jiangnan water towns are far from unique. On the land of Ningxia in the northwest frontier, rural highways likewise trace clear paths for rural revitalization across the countryside. In Hongsibu District of Wuzhong City, trucks loaded with wolfberries and daylilies travel smoothly along the even asphalt of Zhonghang Road. Grape vines stretch endlessly on either side of the highway; alongside colored asphalt slow lanes sit transport service stations and smart zebra crossings. Self-driving tourists frequently pull over to experience intelligent road facilities and capture the summer greenery of vineyards and Luoshan Mountain.
Litong District of Wuzhong City has also reaped benefits from improved rural roads. The development of the Wulipo Dairy Cattle Breeding Base hinges on the quality upgrade of Xingye Road. “This road was only six meters wide before, full of potholes and sharp bends. Now it has been widened to eight meters, many curves straightened, making vehicle passing easier and transport efficiency much higher,” said truck driver Master Ma, speaking from personal experience.
These two vivid cases — one in the mountainous southeast coast, the other on the fertile northwest frontier — serve as a vivid microcosm of the ongoing upgrading of China’s rural highway network. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan period, a host of tourism, industrial and resource-access roads have been built nationwide, turning rural highways into roads of prosperity and happiness right at villagers’ doorsteps.
Statistics show that by the end of 2025, the total mileage of China’s rural highways reached 4.7112 million kilometers, an increase of 67,500 kilometers from 2024. Fixed-asset investment in rural highways hit 373.4 billion yuan for the full year of 2025.
Drawing on a road network spanning over 4.7 million kilometers, the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Natural Resources jointly issued the New Round of Rural Highway Improvement Action Plan. It targets the new construction and reconstruction of 300,000 kilometers of rural highways nationwide by 2027, paired with 300,000 kilometers of restorative maintenance works, adding up to 600,000 kilometers of upgrading projects in total. The initiative drives a comprehensive shift for rural highways from “coverage” to “quality” and “industrial vitality”.
Unlike previous construction priorities focused on connecting every village and hamlet, this round of upgrades prioritizes industrial, resource and tourism roads. Authorities precisely expand the road network around featured planting, rural tourism, agricultural product processing and other industries to unblock key external transport nodes. Industrial-linked highways now account for a markedly larger share of newly launched rural road projects across the country, forming the core transport backbone supporting rural industrial revitalization.
Beyond expanding mileage alone, the new construction campaign simultaneously advances pavement upgrades, safety protection and supporting services to genuinely improve driving quality on rural roads. To address steep slopes, sharp bends and road sections alongside rivers and cliffs common in mountainous and hilly areas, local governments have installed guardrails, warning signs and emergency escape lanes, while renovating aging bridges to fasten a “safety belt” for rural travel.
Under the plan, 150,000 kilometers of rural highway safety protection projects and 9,000 dilapidated bridge renovations will be completed nationwide by 2027, fully closing safety loopholes. Bus stops and village delivery outlets have been set up in densely populated administrative villages, integrating passenger transport, freight and postal express services, so villagers can conveniently take buses and send or receive parcels close to home.
With more than one year remaining to hit the 2027 overall targets, local governments have rolled out special implementation plans, breaking construction tasks down into annual schedules and strengthening guarantees of funding, land and technology to launch and deliver projects in steady order. Data from the Ministry of Transport indicates that 16,000 kilometers of rural highways were newly built or reconstructed across the country in the first four months of 2026, with fixed-asset investment reaching 82.11 billion yuan, maintaining a steady construction pace.
From coastal tourist highways in the eastern seaboard, to hardened hamlet-access roads in southwest mountain regions, resource transport corridors in northern farming-pastoral zones and field access farm roads in central grain-producing areas, a widely covered, high-quality and powerfully driving rural highway network is gradually taking shape across China’s vast land. (Outlook New Era)
Edit：Liu Zhiyu Responsible editor：Li Yulu
Source：www.people.cn
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