Table 1

Achievements in transportation construction from 1980 to 2017 in China"

Table 2

Improvement in transportation vehicles from 1980 to 2017 in China"

Table 3

Achievements of transportation volumes from 1980 to 2017 in China"

Figure 1

Changes in passenger and freight transportation structures from 1980 to 2017 Data sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China (http://data.stats.gov.cn/)"

Table 4

Comparison of transportation networks in China and other countries in the early 21st century (data in 2006, unit: 1000 km)"

Table 5

Change in transportation infrastructure per capita from 1980 to 2017 (m)"

Table 6

Accessibilities of administrative units in China to the railway, freeway and airport in 2017"

Figure 2

Driving factors and landmark events of transportation construction in ChinaData sources: The transportation investment data refer to transportation, warehousing and postal investment, and are quoted from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (http://data.stats.gov.cn/)"

Figure 3

Expansion processes of high-speed transportation networks in China Data sources: The data of transportation network in 2018 was collected from the Baidu Map Open Platform (http://lbsyun.baidu.com/). The data in 2003 and 2013 was collected from the maps published by the Thematic Database for Human-earth System of Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.data.ac.cn/xiazai/xiazainew.asp), and the National Geomatics Center of China (http://www.ngcc.cn/)."

Figure 4

Expansion modes of the high-speed networks in China"

Figure 5

Evolution of regional differences in transportation networks in China Data sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China (http://data.stats.gov.cn/)"

Table 7

Evolution of differences between the three economic zones in transportation networks"

Figure 6

The distribution of transportation corridors and metropolitan areas in China Data sources: The 13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Modern Integrated Transportation System and National Main Functional Zone Planning published by the State Council, PRC"

Figure 7

Evolution of travel times around provincial capitals in China Data sources: The data of transportation network in 2016 was collected from the Baidu Map Open Platform (http://lbsyun.baidu.com/). The data in 2003 was collected from the maps published by the Thematic Database for Human-earth System of Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.data.ac.cn/xiazai/xiazainew.asp), and the National Geomatics Center of China (http://www.ngcc.cn/). The calculation was based on the ARCGIS platform. For the specific method, please refer to Jin et al. (2017)"

Figure 8

Evolution of the pattern of transportation dominance in China Data sources: The data of the spatial pattern of transportation dominance in 1985 was quoted from “Infrastructure and Economic-social Spatial Organization (Beijing: Science Press, 2012) authored by Jin Fengjun. The data in 2016 was calculated by authors. The raw data was mainly collected from Baidu Map (https://map.baidu.com/), Thematic Database for Human-earth System of Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.data.ac.cn/ xiazai/xiazainew.asp), and the National Geomatics Center of China (http://www.ngcc.cn/). The calculation was based on the ARCGIS platform. For the specific method, please refer to Jin et al. (2008)."

Figure 9

Transportation construction and the evolution of the urban development pattern in China Data sources: 1985 China Urban Statistical Yearbook and 2016 China Urban Statistical Yearbook"

Figure 10

Transportation construction and the evolution of economic development pattern in China Data sources: 1985 China Urban Statistical Yearbook and 2016 China Urban Statistical Yearbook"

Figure 11

Evolution stages of the spatial pattern of transportation geography"

Figure 12

The hub-and-spoke structure of economic and social development in China"