[By Liu Rui/Global Times]

One of the widely recognized aspects of China's modernization process in recent years has been the fast development of the highway system. Twenty years ago, there were virtually no highway in China. Now China has 65,000 kilometers of highway and will exceeds that of the US in two or three years.

But I have a love-hate relationship with China's highway system after taking to the road many times. To drivers, China's highway system is probably the world's most expensive with "here toll, there toll, everywhere toll toll."

For example, transporting a large container from Guangdong Province to the Beijing-Tianjin area involves paying toll fees of somewhere between 4,000 to 6,000 yuan ($600-900), depending on tonnage. This actually makes transporting the same container from Chicago to Beijing-Tianjin area via sea freight shipment even cheaper. When moving things around the country is more expensive than moving things halfway around the globe, you know there got to be something wrong.

One doesn't have to drive on highways for long to notice that the system is obviously inefficient. Many highways in China don't see much traffic during the day.

While Chinese can feel proud that our country is the king of the highways, it is quite another feeling to consider that the steel, concrete and labor that go into highway construction will have to be ultimately paid by the vehicles that go through, and there just aren't enough of them. That means a high toll rate is inevitable.

Now I understand highways are expensive to build and the investment has to be recouped via toll collection. OK, you pay for what you get. But how much of the collected toll revenue goes toward paying back highway construction loans is very much in doubt. Has the whole thing become a scheme for meaningless job creation?

In China, collecting toll fees is a very well paid job, and in some cases pays better than a full professorship. I assume receiving cash and handing out a ticket doesn't need much education, right? It certainly can't be more stressful than migrant workers pouring concrete on the road under the sun.