Asia's largest long-distance bus station will open in Shanghai on January 25, said the station's operator.

Located near the city's new railway station, the long-distance bus station will be a landmark building in the city thanks to its top class design, said Guo Wei, general manager of Shanghai Zhixin Transport Company, the operator of the station.

Guo said the new bus station, which cost 750 million yuan (US$90.6 million), have a three-floor parking lot with an area of 36,000 square meters and a 5,000-square-meter lounge able to seat 3,000 passengers.

The station is equipped with intelligent networks for ticket selling, logistics and bus arranging and will have the capacity to transport 20,000 passengers with 600-1,200 coaches-times each day, said Guo.

With the extension of freeways in China, the number of passengers choosing long-distance bus in travel is increasing at an annual speed of ten percent. About 30 percent of Shanghai's travelers choose to travel by bus, second only to rail transport.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2005)