Shanxi has in recent years achieved significant results in its expressway construction. By the end of 2000,the provincial expressway mileage extended to 518 kilometers-which is the length of the Taiyuan-Jiuguan Expressway-ranking 11m in the country. After that, Shanxi invested another 20 billion yuan in building the 666-kilometer-long Datong-Yuncheng Expressway running the entire length of the province from Datong in the north to Yuncheng in the south. It traverses Datong,Shuozhou, Xinzhou, Taiyuan, Linfen,Houma, and Yuncheng-oil important cities of Shanxi with industrial and population concentration and rich natural resources. The construdion of this freeway,which connects all parts of the country by the interlocking national road grid, will contribute hugely not only to the social and economic development of Shanxi, but also to that of China.