The Fifth Ring Road, the capital's first round-the-city expressway, was fully completed with its last 38-kilometre section opened to traffic on Saturday.

With a total length of 98.58 kilometres, the road is also the first large-scale infrastruc-tural facility that has been completed for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Completion of the road is also hoped to greatly alleviate Beijing's traffic congestion problems and will promote the construction and development of satellite towns.

Located in the city's outskirts, around 10 to 15 kilometres from downtown Beijing, the expressway features six lanes of two-way traffic, a hard shoulder and a speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour.

The road's additional facilities have also been largely completed.

Emergency telephone boxes can be found every 1 to 2 kilometres of the road and toilets can also be found at the road's 32 toll stations

Although cars still cannot be refuelled directly on the road at present, 12 petrol stations have been approved at four points on the road and are due to be constructed in the near future.

The charge method will follow the current standard, meaning that 0.5 yuan (US$ 6 cents) will be charged for every kilometre travelled.

The road mainly links up Olympic gymnasiums and stadiums, and 10 outlying areas, including Fengtai, Shijingshan and Beiyuan. It will become the main route to all the Olympic sites in 2008.

It also connects several expressways radiating from Beijing.

According to a report released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the completion of the Fifth Ring Road will increase the capital's traffic capacity by 10 per cent, being able to accommodate 200,000 more vehicles.

The report also said the road will take 20 per cent of traffic flow from the Fourth Ring Road in the near future.

The number of motor vehicles in Beijing exceeded 2 million by the end of August this year, said an official with the Beijing Municipal Communications Commission, adding that the number of private cars in Beijing has increased at an average annual rate of over 30 per cent since 1995.

Apart from the improvement in traffic conditions, the road's construction will also enhance the living conditions of the residents living along the expressway, since households with an area of more than 100 million square metres have been resettled during its construction.

A 100-metre wide green belt along each side of the expressway is also improving the city's environment and the road will also help increase the value of land alongside it.

(China Daily November 3, 2003)