Yunnan has a developed road network centered at Kunming City. The highway network connects with the network of neighboring provinces such as Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Tibet as well as the neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. Over a decade ago, the mileage of Yunnan highways has reached 65,800 km, second only to Sichuan Province in China, among which there are 7 national highway lines, 6,081 km; 61 provincial lines, 8,971 km; county - level highway lines, 30,950 km and country roads, 19,757 km, and now highways lead to every township. Ten thousand length of highway in Kunming link Yunnan with other provinces and other countries. In the year of 2002, Yunnan had the highest high traffic mileages among all provinces in China. 1,570 towns in Yunnan can now be accessed via highway.

Coverage[edit]

Today, Yunnan has a total length of 167,000 km. The length of high-grade highways above Grade 2 adds up to more than 3,400 km and that of expressways amounted to nearly 1,300 km. To date, with Kunming at the nerve center and inter-provincial and intra-provincial roads as the backbone, Yunnan's highway network has stretched to cover all townships and 98 percent of the villages in the province. It is interconnected with the road network of its neighboring provinces of Sichuan,Guizhou, Guangxi, and Tibet and with the neighboring countries of Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. Yunnan is planning to focus on the upgrading and expansion of 6 trunk roads leading to other provinces and neighboring countries with the objective of turning them into a highway network.

National roads[edit]

7 National Roads (National Road 108, 213, 214, 320, 321, 323 and 326) and 61 provincial roads radiate from Kunming to major cities in Yunnan and other provinces or even abroad.

National Road 108: From Panzhihua of Sichuan into Yunnan, cross Yongren, Yuanmou and Wuding to Kunming, it covering 278 km.

National Road 213: From Yibin of Sichuan to Yunnan, cross Zhaotong, Kunming, Yuxi and Simao to Xishuangbanna, it covering 1,581 km. Now this road has been built to Simao and will soon to Jinghong. It will pass Laos and finally get to Bangkok of Thailand, which will become a more convenient passage to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

National Road 214: National Road 214 crosses Yunnan from the south to the north, via Xishuangbanna, Lincang, Dali, Lijiang, Diqing to Tibet, covering 1,418 km. And expressway has been built from Dali to Lijiang.

National Road 320: National Road 320 cross Yunnan from the east to the west, via Qujing, Kunming, Chuxiong, Dali, Baoshan, Luxi to Ruili on the China-Myanmar border, covering 1,030 km. And the part of Qujing-Kunming-Dali is expressway.

National Road 323: From Baise of Guangxi into Yunnan, cross Yanshan, Kaiyuan, Jianshui, Yuanjiang, Pu'er to Lincang, it covering 928 km.

Expansion[edit]

Yunnan Province will mainly build and extend three traffic lines to connect China with to South Asia and Southeast Asia. This was part of the economic coordination of southwest China's six provinces, regions and municipalities (Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Guangxi and Chongqing). The three lines include: the western line along Yunnan-Myanmar (Kunming-Wanding Town) Highway, China-India (Stillwell Road) Highway and Guangtong-Dali Railway to Myanmar, India and Bangladesh; the central line from Lancang-Mekong River shipping line, Kunming-Daluo Highway and the Xishuangbanna International Airport, to Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and further Singapore; and the eastern line to Vietnam based on Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, Kunming-Hekou Highway and the Honghe River shipping line, which is to be developed.