A Chinese section of the highway linking Kunming City in southwestern China with Bangkok of Thailand opened for traffic in Kunming Sunday. 

The Kunming-Bangkok highway is an important part of the Asian highway network, and with a total length of 1,850 km, the highway will start in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, run through Laos and end in the Thai capital of Bangkok.

The Chinese section of the highway starts with Kunming and ends in Mohan, China's boundary city with Laos.

China will spend about 17.25 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) to build new highways or renovate old roads in this section by 2007.

With a length of 147.37 kilometers, the newly finished Yuanjiang-Mohei expressway was the most challenging construction project of the Chinese section of the highway, and cost about 6.67 billion yuan (about US$805.8 million), including a loan of US$250 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

It took three years to build the Yuanjiang-Mohei expressway, and 30 percent of its total length is bridges and tunnels. Experts said the expressway was the most difficult road project ever undertaken in China. 

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2003)