DNA 24

Jinan is positioned at the intersection of two major railways: The Jinghu Railway that runs from Beijing to Shanghai is the major north-south backbone of the railway system in eastern China. In Jinan, it intersects with the Jiaoji Railway that connects Jinan to the sea port of Qingdao to the east. In addition, the Hanji Railway connects Jinan to the city of Handan (Hebei Province) in the west. Within Shandong province, the Jinghu Railway connects Jinan with the cities of Dezhou, Tai'an, Jining, and Zaozhuang; the Jiaoji Railway provides a link to the cities of Zibo, Qingdao, and Weifang; the Hanji Railway serves the cities of Yancheng and Liaocheng. Central Jinan is served by the Jinan Railway Station and the Jinan East Railway Station (just by Daming Lake).

The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway calls at the new Jinan West Railway Station, which is outside the central metropolitan center and is in suburban western Jinan's Huaiyin District. Since it opened for public service on 30 June 2011, it has become a future hub with west-east running high speed railways to Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang and Qingdao.

Major expressways include China National Highway 104, China National Highway 220, and China National Highway 309. Because of Jinan's location and role as a road and rail transportation hub, the Jinan Coach Terminus has one of the largest passenger flows nationally. On peak travel days, as many as 92,000 passengers per day have been counted, on off-peak days the number is around 42,000 passengers per day.

Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport is located about 33 km (21 mi) northeast of the city center and to the north of the town of Yaoqiang from which the name of the airport is derived. The airport is connected to the city center of Jinan by expressways. It has domestic flights to many of the major cities in China as well as to international destinations, in particular Osaka, Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore.

Jinan's urban public transportation history began in 1938, and the city is now a major bus transportation hub. To ensure that buses have priority, most of the city's urban main roads have a bus lane, and bus rapid transit signal priority measures are gradually being implemented. The Jinan urban area has more than 220 public transportation routes.

• Bus rapid transit system: The Jinan BRT has 7 routes, connected by transfer stations. As a result of the BRT's isolated central lanes, signal priority and other measures, bus speeds have been greatly improved, improving public transport. Price:2.

• Conventional buses: Have air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned buses. Air-conditioned lines have a K perfix on their route numbers. These lines comprise more than 200 routes covering the whole city. Price:1 Air-conditioned is2.

• Public trolleybuses: the Jinan trolleybus system, opened in 1977, once had 10 lines, but now has only four. These are Jinan's most important bus routes. Price: 1.

• Suburban and exurban buses - Operated by air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned vehicles. Most of these buses carry passengers from suburban/exurban area to urban area, while the others provide village-to-village or village-to-county service. Price: Varies from 1 to 12.

• Student, supermarket and particular business bus lines - These are for large schools, supermarkets, business transfer students, customers, employees of private businesses. They operate side by side with the other bus systems.