Beijing to expand out to 7th Ring Road

Beijing is planning to build its 7th Ring Road jointly with neighboring Hebei province to ease the traffic and environment stress caused by massive traffic from other provinces.

The 940-kilometer highway is expected to open in 2015. Beijing would only cover 90 kilometers, linking the city's distant districts, and the rest will extend into Hebei province. It will be connected to many existing highways, including the Beijing-Shenyang Line and Daqing-Guangzhou Line.

The highway is designed to encircle Beijing, as its predecessors do, and therefore will be called the city's 7th Ring Road.

Beijing is a busy traffic hub as the transit center for China's northwestern cargos going to the coast and northeastern cargos going to the South. Passing cars from outside provinces worsen the city's already terrible traffic and air pollution. The highway, devised to shift part of southwest Beijing's inter-city traffic, is expected to ease the strain.