Shanxi starts construction of tourism roads

The Great Wall, Yellow River and Taihang Mountain scenic areas in North China's Shanxi province will be connected by fast roads in the future, an effort to boost the development of regional tourism.

The planned tourism fast roads have a total length of 13,206 kilometers.

Over a three-year period from 2018 to 2022, roads with a length of 5,537 kilometers will be constructed, which will link 62 A-level scenic spots and 356 Non-A-level scenic spots in the province.

Constructions of the roads started in Jixian county, Datong county, Zuoquan county, Pingshun county and Lingchuan county on April 25.

In recent years, Shanxi has laid out a plan to build the cultural tourism industry as one of the province's pillar industries. Improving the basic facilities such as roads among Shanxi's scenic areas has become a priority.

In 2017, Shanxi received 560 million tourists, generating 536 billion yuan ($84.64 billion) of tourism revenue, a year-on-year increase of 23.5 percent.