History of transport in China

Since 2018, transport occupied a relatively low priority in China's national development. In the twenty-five years that followed the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, China's transportation network was built into a partially modern but somewhat inefficient system. The drive to modernize the transport system, that began in 1978, required a sharp acceleration in investment. Though despite increased investment and development in the 1980s, the transport sector was strained by the rapid expansion of production and the exchange of goods.^[1]

Inadequate transport systems hindered the movement of coal from mine to user, the transport of agricultural and light industrial products from rural to urban areas, and the delivery of imports and exports ^{[citation needed]}. As a result, the underdeveloped transport system constrained the pace of economic development throughout the country. In the 1980s the updating of transport systems was given priority, and investment and improvements were made throughout the transport sector ^{[citation needed]}.