The Ministry of Transport has formally announced that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period (2026-2030), China will fully complete the construction of the G219 and G331 land-based strategic backbone corridors along its borders, as well as the G228 coastal backbone corridor. These three national highways will connect end-to-end to form a "Golden Outer Ring" encircling China's border and coastal regions. This announcement was made by Vice Minister of Transport Xu Chengguang at a State Council Information Office press conference in late July, themed "Getting off to a Strong Start for the '15th Five-Year Plan'."
Xu Chengguang stated that this outer ring will serve as a major passageway along China's borders and coastline, as well as an important corridor for tourism, resource development, and border stabilization. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China's comprehensive national three-dimensional transportation network exceeded 6 million kilometers, with the main skeleton of "6 axes, 7 corridors, and 8 channels" achieving a completion rate of 91%. The scale and volume of comprehensive transportation infrastructure have firmly secured China's position in the global first tier.
Xu Chengguang explicitly stated at the press conference that advancing cross-regional and cross-basin corridor construction during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period is no longer about simply "expanding projects" or "adding new ones." Instead, the focus is on optimizing spatial layouts, unblocking the main arteries of the economic cycle, and promoting balanced regional development. By 2030, the completion rate of the main skeleton of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network is expected to rise from the current 91% to 95%.
Once the "Golden Outer Ring" is fully completed, it will interact with the Yangtze River Golden Waterway, the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, and the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway, forming a complete network consisting of an "outer ring, inland waterways, and longitudinal trunk lines." Three national highways combine to form a 27,000-kilometer closed loop. Spreading out across China's transportation map, three ultra-long national highways constitute the main framework of the "Golden Outer Ring": The G219 National Highway starts from Kanas in Xinjiang in the north and ends at Dongxing in Guangxi in the south, with a total length of over 10,000 kilometers. It passes through four provinces—Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan, and Guangxi—making it China's longest national highway and the world's highest-altitude road on average. It runs longitudinally along the western border, connecting a diverse range of natural landscapes including mountains, forests, grasslands, lakes, deserts, and seas. The G331 National Highway starts from Dandong in Liaoning in the east and ends at Altay in Xinjiang in the west, with a total length of 9,333 kilometers. It spans six provinces—Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Xinjiang—linking landscapes such as the Northeast Plain, Inner Mongolia Grassland, the Greater Khingan Range, and the Changbai Mountains. It is hailed as the "Most Beautiful Border Highway." The G228 National Highway starts from Dandong in Liaoning in the north and ends at Dongxing in Guangxi in the south, with a planned total length of approximately 7,400 kilometers. It runs through ten provinces—Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi—closely following China's eastern coastline and stringing together coastal port city clusters like pearls on a chain. The three national highways connect end-to-end to form a complete closed loop with a total length of approximately 27,000 kilometers, equivalent to two-thirds of the Earth's equatorial circumference.
The "Golden Outer Ring" is not merely about "patching and mending"; it is designed to enhance road network resilience and accessibility depth. According to public plans, the next five years will focus on accelerating the construction of key cross-mountain and sea-crossing sections, such as the Zhaosu-Wensu section of the G219 and the Baichi Channel in Quanzhou of the G228, while simultaneously advancing upgrades and improvements across the entire route. It is estimated that approximately 7,400 kilometers will be constructed or upgraded during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. The Zhaosu-Wensu Highway, a major north-south passage across the Tianshan Mountains, starts in Xiaterkeerkezxiang Village, Zhaosu County, crosses the Muzart Daban southward to enter Aksu Prefecture, and ends in Wensu County, covering a total length of 232.7 kilometers. Construction began in 2023, with completion planned for 2027. The Jilin section of the G331 has already been fully opened, serving as a benchmark segment of the "Golden Outer Ring." This 1,314-kilometer border highway connects 12 national forest parks and 8 national nature reserves, among other ecological and cultural tourism resources, making it a popular destination for border self-driving tours and eco-tourism. The total approximately 27,000-kilometer "Golden Outer Ring" will connect over a hundred first-class ports and coastal ports, resolving the long-standing issue of "dead-end roads" along the border and coastline. For the local population along the route, border products can be transported smoothly, and public services will also extend with the road. For the nation, this corridor will strengthen national security barriers while also facilitating both domestic and international dual circulation.
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