Expressway links Guangzhou to the eastern reaches
A newly built freeway between Guangzhou and the mountain city of Meizhou is expected to accelerate the shift of industrial production from the southern Pearl River Delta to Guangdong's eastern reaches.
The Meihe Expressway between Meizhou and Heyuan was officially opened to traffic on Sunday, and links up with existing freeways between Guangzhou and Heyuan.
The new road halves the travel time between Guangzhou and Meizhou to a four-hour trip and cuts three hours from the six hours that it used to take to drive from Meizhou, which is close to Fujian province , to the prosperous city of Shenzhen.
Zhou Yunyuan , an economics professor at Guangzhou's Sun Yat-Sen University, said the new freeway could boost the economic development of Guangdong's east because many companies had previously refused to move to the region because of the poor transport infrastructure.
'It is important for Guangdong,' Professor Zhou said.
'The project could refine the traffic network in eastern Guangdong and encourage more delta factories to move to the eastern region.'
