一、发展历程

I. Course of Development

新中国成立之初，交通运输面貌十分落后。全国铁路总里程仅2.18万公里，有一半处于瘫痪状态。能通车的公路仅8.08万公里，民用汽车5.1万辆。内河航道处于自然状态。民航航线只有12条。邮政服务网点较少。主要运输工具还是畜力车和木帆船等。

When the PRC was founded in 1949, transport was underdeveloped. Total railway length was only 21,800 km, half of which was paralyzed. Highway traffic length was only 80,800 km, and civil automobiles numbered only 51,000. Inland waterways were undeveloped, and only 12 civil air routes were operative. Postal outlets were limited. The major means of transport were animal-drawn vehicles and primitive boats.

新中国成立后，中国政府明确提出首先要创造一些基本条件恢复交通运输。经过3年的国民经济恢复期，修复了被破坏的交通运输设施设备，恢复了水陆空运输。1953年起，开始有计划地进行交通运输建设。在第一个、第二个五年计划和国民经济调整期间（1953—1965年），国家投资向交通运输倾斜，改造和新建了一批铁路、公路、港口码头、民用机场，提高了西部和边远地区的交通运输基础设施覆盖程度，疏浚了主要航道，新开辟了国际、国内水路和空中航线，扩大了邮政网络，增加了运输装备数量。“文化大革命”期间（1966—1976年），交通运输发展一度受到严重干扰，但设施和装备规模、运输线路仍在增加，特别是针对沿海主要港口压船、压港、压货日趋严重的局面，加快了港口基础设施建设。在此期间，管道运输也得到了发展。

Following the founding of the PRC, the Chinese government decided to create the basic conditions to restore transport. During the economic recovery period (1949-1952) damaged transport facilities were repaired, and water, land and air transport were resumed. In 1953 China began to develop transport in a planned way. During the First (1953-1957) and Second (1958-1962) Five-Year Plan periods and the economic adjustment period (1961-1965) China tilted state investment in support of transport. It renovated and built a number of railways, highways, ports and piers, and civil airports; expanded the transport infrastructure coverage in the western and remote regions; dredged major navigation channels; opened new international and domestic sea and air routes; expanded the postal network; and increased the amount of transport equipment.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), transport was seriously disturbed, but facilities, equipment and routes kept increasing; in view of the severe delays in unloading and transshipment, and overstocking at major coastal ports, port infrastructure construction was accelerated; and pipeline transport developed.

1978年，改革开放揭开了中国经济社会发展的新篇章，交通运输步入了快速发展阶段。中国政府把交通运输放在优先发展的位置，加大政策扶持力度，在放开交通运输市场、建立社会化融资机制方面进行开创性探索，积极扭转交通运输不适应经济社会发展的被动局面。铁路实行经济承包责任制；出台了提高养路费征收标准、开征车辆购置附加费以及“贷款修路、收费还贷”等扶持公路发展的三项政策；公路、水运工程建设项目开始实行招投标制度；港口率先对外开放，海运业最早实现“走出去”；民航走上了企业化发展道路，航空运输市场开始形成；实施邮政管理体制改革，成立中国速递服务公司，恢复办理邮政储蓄业务；加大交通运输建设投资力度，吸引社会资本参与基础设施建设。1988年沪嘉高速公路通车，实现中国大陆高速公路零的突破。

The reform and opening-up policy adopted in 1978 ushered in a new stage of social and economic development, bringing about the rapid development of transport. The Chinese government prioritized transport development, increased pertinent policy support, made pioneering attempts to open wider the transport market and establish social financing mechanisms, and reversed the adverse situation that transport was unable to match social and economic development.

China implemented the contract responsibility system in railway operation; issued three policies for supporting highway development, namely, raising highway maintenance fee levied on highway users, collecting vehicle purchase tax, and building highways with loans and repaying the loans with tolls. Highway construction and water transport engineering projects started to adopt public bidding. Ports were the first to be opened up to the outside world, and sea transport was the first sector to go global. Civil aviation began to operate as an enterprise, and an air transport market took shape. The postal services management system was reformed, Express Mail Service (EMS) was set up, and postal savings services were resumed. Investment in transport development was increased and non-government capital was attracted to go into transport infrastructure construction. In 1988, the Shanghai-Jiading Expressway was opened to traffic, the first expressway on China’s mainland.

1992年，中国确立了建立社会主义市场经济体制的改革目标。交通运输不断加大改革开放力度，各种运输方式发展取得突破性进展。开展铁路建设大会战，1997年起铁路进行了连续六次大提速。公路和水运实施公路主骨架、水运主通道、港站主枢纽和支持保障系统的“三主一支持”规划，制定了加快建设步伐的目标任务。民航机场建设费和基础设施建设基金、铁路建设基金、内河航运建设基金先后设立。为应对东南亚金融危机，中国实施积极的财政政策，公路建设投资进入“快车道”，高速公路建设大规模兴起。实施西部大开发战略，全面加强西部地区铁路、公路、机场、天然气管道干线建设。提出“修好农村路，服务城镇化，让农民兄弟走上油路和水泥路”发展目标，掀起农村公路建设新高潮。深化港口管理体制改革，加快港口建设。实行邮电分营和邮政政企分开，邮政向信息流、资金流和物流“三流合一”的现代邮政业方向发展。《中长期铁路网规划》《国家高速公路网规划》等一系列规划陆续出台。大力提升交通运输基本公共服务水平，全面加强城乡客运、城市公共交通、交通运输安全应急救助等领域建设。2008年组建交通运输部，交通运输大部门体制改革迈出实质性步伐。同年，京津城际铁路通车运营，中国开启了“高铁时代”。

In 1992, China set the reform goal of establishing a socialist market economic system. Reform and opening-up efforts were furthered in transport while the development of various modes of transport achieved breakthrough progress. Since 1997, it has raised its average railway speed six times as a result of large-scale construction. A plan was made to build a transport framework where highways, waterways and ports play the major role, and put in place an advanced transport support system. A goal was set to accelerate related construction. China began to collect civil airport construction fees, and set up a civil airport infrastructure construction fund, a railway construction fund and an inland water transport construction fund in succession. To address the Financial Crisis starting in Southeast Asia, China implemented proactive fiscal policies to speed up investment in highway construction, which spurred the emergence of large-scale expressway construction. Around that time, the country implemented the strategy of developing the western regions, and enhanced the construction of railways, highways, airports and major gas pipelines there. It set the goal of “building asphalt and cement roads in rural areas to facilitate urbanization,” bringing a new upsurge of rural road construction. China furthered the reform of the port management system and accelerated the construction of ports. It separated postal services and telecommunications services, and government functions and enterprise operation in postal services, promoting modern postal services integrating information flow, capital flow and logistics.

The Chinese government issued the Medium- and Long-Term Railway Network Plan, National Expressways Network Plan and related programs, while vigorously improving basic transport public service capacity, urban and rural passenger transport, urban public transport and transport safety emergency rescue. In 2008, China’s Ministry of Transport (MOT) was established, and efforts were made to put all management of transport by air, water and land, as well as postal services under the ministry. The same year, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway was opened to traffic, marking the start of China’s high-speed rail era.