A car drives past the Tongzhou-Daxing section as the expressway section closes a gap in the 940-km loop-line of Beijing's greater outer ring road
The long-waited expressway to connect Beijing with 13 nearby cities officially opened to traffic on August 20, China National Radio reported. As a major project designed to further integrating the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, the necklace-shaped expressway is expected to play a crucial role in easing traffic congestion and boosting economic connections in the region.
The newly completed G95 expressway is 940km long, but only 38km is in Beijing. Another 38km section is in Tianjin and the remaining 890km in Hebei Province. But it is still considered to be a successor to Beijing’s already established six ring roads, and is referred to as the seventh ring road of Beijing.
Between 25,000 and 50,000 cars are expected to use the road per day, significantly lowering the burden on the fifth and sixth ring roads, largely improving the quality of the capital’s overall transportation network.
For example, traveling between Beijing's two airports required a trip half way through the forth ring road and half way through the fifth ring road. But now the Miyun-Zhuozhou expressway – which is officially part of the seventh ring road - offers a much more direct route to the airports.
The G95 expressway connecting Beijing's Tongzhou and Daxing districts opened to traffic on Monday
More importantly, the expressway will give convenient alternatives during the commute between Beijing and Zhangjiakou, the two host cities of the 2022 Winter Olympics. In general, drivers from the cities within the road's circle or from Beijing's rural areas no longer need to pass through the congested urban areas in the heart of Beijing to reach other nearby cities.
The opening of the expressway has also received warm response from Chinese netizens. A comment with over 800 likes on China’s Twitter-like Weibo reads, “I wish my hometown will someday be included in Beijing’s ring roads too. I guess the dream will come true when the construction of the 200th ring road begins.” And another one, written by a user named @Zhudingzhen, said “Congratulations! I now feel much closer to the capital.”
As the vice president of Beijing University of Technology's College of Metropolitan Transportation said, convenient transportation is always the prerequisite to deepening regional integration. The seventh ring road will not only ease pressure in Beijing’s urban area, but also boost connectivity with the satellite cities to a large extent.
A car drives past the Tongzhou-Daxing section as the expressway section closes a gap in the 940-km loop-line of Beijing's greater outer ring road
The newly completed G95 expressway is 940km long, but only 38km is in Beijing. Another 38km section is in Tianjin and the remaining 890km in Hebei Province. But it is still considered to be a successor to Beijing’s already established six ring roads, and is referred to as the seventh ring road of Beijing.
The G95 expressway connecting Beijing's Tongzhou and Daxing districts opened to traffic on Monday
As the vice president of Beijing University of Technology's College of Metropolitan Transportation said, convenient transportation is always the prerequisite to deepening regional integration. The seventh ring road will not only ease pressure in Beijing’s urban area, but also boost connectivity with the satellite cities to a large extent.
