Transportation

Changsha Metro Line 2, the first and a core line of east-west rail transit in Changsha, was open to traffic in December 2013. It runs through 3 passenger hubs of the city (West Station of Changsha, Changsha Railway Station and Changsha South Railway Station) and 4 passenger flow collector-distributor centers (Yinwanzhen, Wuyi Square, Furong Square and Yuanjialing). The underground line stretches as long as 22.262 kilometers, consisting of 19 stations, among which 6 are transfer stations.

Changsha Metro Line 2 westward extension began operation in 2015 end，extending from Wangchengpo Station to Meixi Lake area, which adds the total distance of Metro Line 2 to 26.579 km. (Find more info at "Celebrating the Opening of Changsha Metro Line 2" >>)

Changsha Metro Line 1 (PhaseⅠ), Changsha's second subway line, starts from Kaifu District Government Station in the north, and ends up at Shangshuangtang Station in the south. It was started construction at the end of 2010, and has been put into trail operation since June 29, 2016. (Find more info at "Congratulations on the Opening of Changsha Metro Line 1" >>)

Changsha Metro Line 4 (PhaseⅠ), Changsha’s third subway line, began construction in late 2014, and opens to trial operation on May 26, 2019. It is It connects the east and west banks of the Xiangjiang River, and is an important part of Changsha’s “Union Jack” shaped subway plan. (Find more infor at “Changsha Metro Line 4” >>)

Other lines under construction: 

Changsha Metro Line 3 (PhaseⅠ) runs from southwest to northeast, with a length of 36.5 kilometersAs of June, 23 of the 25 stations have been completed. The line connects Yuelu, Tianxin, Yuhua, Furong, Kaifu Districts, and Changsha County. It is expected to be put into trial run in 2019.

Changsha Metro Line 5 (PhaseⅠ) runs from north to south, with a total length of 22.5km. It started construction at the end of 2015. As of June, the main structure of its 18 stations, and the two-way tunnel construction have been finished.

Changsha Metro Line 6: runs from Gaoxin District in the west, to Huanghua Airport West Station in the east. The line runs through Wangcheng, Yuelu, Kaifu, Furong, Yuhua Districts, and Changsha County. As of June, 6 of the 34 stations have completed.

Road & Highway

Hunan's total road mileage was less than 4000 kilometers till 1949, but it grew quickly after the founding of New China, especially after reform and opening-up in 1978.

By the end of 2017, Hunan province has built 44 expressways and opened 25 provincial highways. The traffic mileage reaches 6,582 kilometers, making Hunan be included among the top five throughout the country. It has completed a total of 31 thousand miles of trunk highways. All of the counties and districts have been accessible by the roads at the second-level or above. The total mileage of rural roads of the whole province has amounted to 202 thousand kilometers. Asphalt (cement) roads have all been fixed in all of the villages, towns, and established villages with qualified requirements. Passenger buses have been available in all of the townships, while the established villages equipped with passenger bus services account for 98.91%.

Ports 

Hunan is a water province, centered on the Dongting Lake and including the Xiangjiang, Zijiang, Yuanjiang and Lishui trunk rivers. A complex water network links up the whole province.The navigable range of the provincial waterway has totaled 11,968 kilometers, ranking third in the country.The province has 63 ports with handling volume of 10,000 ton draft or above, among which the ports of Yueyang, Changsha, Xiangtan, Zhuzhou, Hengyang, Changde, Yiyang are capable of handling one million tons of freight per annum. Since the year of 2000, the increasing rate of water capacity of Hunan is above 20%. The cargo throughput of the ports across Hunan has risen from 5.482 million tons in 1978 to 292 million tons in 2017, an increase of 52.3 times. 

The Chenglinji Port in Yueyang is the only deepwater harbor connecting the rivers and the seas along Yangtze River in Hunan Province. The seagoing vessels with a capacity of 10,000 tons can go directly to the port. The first domestic inland river direct route from Chenglingji Port to Hong Kong and Macao was opened in 2012. In 2013, the second phase of the Newport has been preliminarily approved by the Hunan Provincial Department of Land Resources. Up to 2025, with the completion of the third phase, the port’s designed annual container throughput will reach 800,000 foot Equivalent Unit, making it a competitive leading port along the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River over Chongqing and Wuhan.The routes from Yueyang to countries and regions like Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan have also been opened. 

Chenglingji Port of Yueyang has been officially included in the first batch of designated ports for imported grain in China, and was the first authorized finished vehicles import port in central China, with its first batch of vehicles being approved for licensing on March 1st, 2016.

Changsha New Port has seven regional branch routes for international containers, and has initiated over 10 international routes to Korea, Japan, West of America, Europe, Australia, Africa, Eest of South America, and Mediterranean. The port has over 40 liners for import and export of international containers. As they enter the Xiangjiang River, freights are shipped to base ports all over the world via Shanghai port in Yangtze River. In this manner, an advantageous waterway network system, spreading globally and reaching various rivers and oceans, is established covering over 60% of load/ unload of containers in regional branch routes of Changsha and central Hunan. Within the single July of 2013, the container throughput of the port reaches 9,725, a year-on-year growth of 20%. Currently, the third phase of construction is under progress in Changsha New Port, whose annual throughput is expected to reach 10 million tons after the implementation.

Aviation 

As of the end of 2018, Hunan has seven civil aviation airports, with 360 routes in operation. In 2018, the annual passenger throughput of Hunan airports exceeded 30 million trips for the first time. 

Changsha Huanghua International Airport is one of Hunan's major portals to the outside world, and an important civil aviation hub in China. Changsha airport operates 45 international and regional ones. Passengers can fly from Changsha to 31 cities in 12 “Belt and Road” countries and regions, on the front rank in central China. It was awarded International Four-Star Airport Rating by Skytrax, the fifth airport of its kind in the Chinese mainland and the first in central China. In 2018, it handled 25.3 million trips.

Nanyue Airport in Hengyang officially opened for business in December 2014. By the end of 2018, it has operated flights to 23 capital cities and key domestic tourist cities. There are dozens of airlines in the airport, such as China Eastern Airlines, Southern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines. It handled 816,232 trips in 2018, ranking second among Hunan’s regional airports. 

Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport was renamed Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airport on 19 September, 2017, as Hunan’s second international airport. It operates 42 flights of 15 airline companies to the main cities and hot destinations at home and abroad, including those to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Djakarta, and Bangkok. Its annual passenger throughput broke through two million in November 2018, making it a nationally middle-sized airport. 

Yueyang Sanhe Airport was officially opened to traffic in December 2018. It has introduced four airlines, including Juneyao Air, Chengdu Airlines, and Chongqing Airlines; and, operated flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming, Chongqing, Guiyang, Hangzhou, Nanning, Xiamen, Qingdao, Harbin, Jinan, Weihai, and Zhoushan. As of October 2019, it has operated 4,588 flights, with an overall passenger load factor exceeding 81%. A total of 465,000 passenger trips have been handled, ranking fifth among Hunan’s airports.

Changde Taohuayuan Airport, the third international airport in Hunan, opened its international service on December 8, 2019. One international flight between Changde and Bangkok is operated during the three-month temporary opening period. It has 13 air routes linking with 19 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and operates 204 flights every week. It has become one of China’s regional airports with annual passenger throughput of more than one million. 

Rail 

Hunan has a developed railway system. Seven main railway lines – Jingguang (Beijing-Guangzhou), Hukun (Shanghai-Kunming), Xiangqian (Zhuzhou-Guiyang), Zhegan (Hangzhou-Zhuzhou), Xianggui (Hunan-Guangxi), Shichang (Shimenxian-Changsha), and Jiaoliu (Jiaozuo-Liuzhou) railways, pass through the province.

By the end of 2017, China's total high-speed railway mileage reached 25,000 kilometers, accounting for 70% of the global total high-speed network mileage, ranking first in the world. There are three high-speed railway lines in Hunan Province: Beijing-Guangzhou, Shanghai-Kunming, and Hengyang–Liuzhou. Ten cities and prefecture have set up high-speed rail stations for these lines passing through Hunan. There are other high-speed rail projects under construction, such as Zhangjiajie-Jishou-Huaihua, Qianjiang-Zhangjiajie-Changde and Changde-Yiyang-Changsha. The Huaihua-Shaoyang-Hengyang Railway will be open to traffic at the end of December.

The north-south Beijing-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, a key part of Chinese "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network, and the world's longest high-speed rail, runs through Hunan. Its Wuhan-Guangzhou section (Wuguang High-speed Railway) opened to traffic in December 2009. It shortened the journey from Changsha to Wuhan to one hour, to Guangzhou two hours, and to Beijing five hours. 

Hukun (Shanghai to Kunming) High-speed Railway went into operation on December, 2014. It reduced travel time between Changsha and Shanghai to 4 hours and 26 minutes, and that between Changsha and Hangzhou to 3 hours and 38 minutes.

Yuchangxia (Chongqing-Changsha-Xiamen) High-speed Railway, a part of Chinese "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" railway network, has three sections in Hunan – Qianjiang (Chongqing)-Zhangjiajie-Changde, Chengde-Yiyang-Changsha, and Changsha-Ganzhou (Jiangxi Province). The Changsha-Ganjiang section is on preliminaries. The Qianjiang-Zhangjaijie-Changde section is to be completed, and begin debugging in September and trial operation in November, 2019. The Changde-Yiyang-Changsha section will start construction in June, 2019. Upon the operation of this rail, all of Hunan’s 13 cities and one prefecture can be reached by high-speed trains. 

Maglev Express

Changsha Meglev Express project, China's first domestically designed and manufactured magnetic levitation line, was started on May, 2014.

The maglev shuttles between Changsha South Railway Station and Huanghua International Airport, with a one-way journey of 18.55 km. The 48-meter-long train can carry 363 people in three carriages. The planned maximum speed is 100 km per hour.

The Meglev Express began trial operation on May 6, 2016.

(Find more info about Changsha Meglev Express at "Changsha's Maglev Opens to Traffic" >>)

Chang-Zhu-Tan Intercity Railway

The Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Intercity Railway starts runs of the whole line on December 26, 2017. This double-tracked intercity railway connecting Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan covers a total length of 104.36 km, running at a maximum speed of 200 km per hour. The commuting time among the three cities would be shortened in 30 minutes.

It is a core project of the “3+5” intercity railway transport network of Hunan Province. The construction starting on Sep. 30, 2010, with a total investment of 24.05 billion yuan. The 95.5-kilometer-long rail is a two-lane passenger-dedicated line covering 21 stations in total.

(Find more info at the special report "Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Intercity Railway" >>)

International Railway Freight Trains

The first direct international railway freight trains from Hunan to Europe opened to operation in October, 2014. The lines of the freight trains is composed of a primary line and two auxiliary lines. The main line sets out from Changsha, leaves the country from Manzhouli (Machchuria) of Inner Mongolia, travels across Russia, Belarus, Poland and finally arrives in Duisburg of Germany, covering a distance of 11,905 km and runs for 16 to 18 days. Goods transported are mainly auto parts, porcelain, display screens, intelligence toys, and tea.

One auxiliary line starts from Changsha, leaves the country at Alashankou Port of Xinjiang, travels across Kazakhstan and finally arrives in Tashkent of Uzbekistan, covering 6,476 km for 11 days. The other auxiliary line leaves the country from Manzhouli of Inner Mongolia, and finally arrive in Moscow of Russia covering 10,090 km for 15 days.

The first two-way regular operation of the freight train was completed on Aug. 8, 2017, departing from Hamburg, Germany and passing through Poland, Belarus, and Russia.

There are now five Hunan-Europe Express lines access to Hamburg and Duisburg of Germany, Minsk of Belarus, Malaszewicze of Poland, and Budapest of Hungary. They also link 10 countries including Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, and Latvia and cover 13 major cities along the lines.