East China's Fujian province is trying to enhance the connectivity of different cities to boost coordinated and integrated regional development.
The province's transportation network has been further improved to boost exchanges among diverse industries and the sharing of resources among regions.
The Fuzhou-Pingtan Railway now under construction, for example, aims to support the construction of Binhai New City in Fuzhou - a cluster for emerging industries including big data and cloud computing - as well as help promote the opening-up of the Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Area.
Sitting on the islands to the east of Fuzhou city proper, Pingtan is also the closest Fujian region to Taiwan and thus the province's major destination for cross-Straits business cooperation.
The railway stretches about 88 kilometers. When put into operation, it will take only half an hour to travel between Pingtan and Fuzhou.
Officials in Fuzhou said the city will focus on project construction, policy sharing, tourism development and investment attraction to facilitate regional integration between Fuzhou and Pingtan.
Pingtan poured about 63.5 billion yuan ($9.22 billion) into about 50 cross-region projects this year, including high-speed rail stations and an of shore wind-power transmission network.
Xiamen, another economic powerhouse of Fujian, has accelerated its own connections with Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Longyan, its three neighboring cities.
An expressway linking Zhangzhou and Xiamen is scheduled to be operational later this month. The travel time between the two cities will be shortened to 30 minutes. Officials from Zhangzhou said the city would learn more from Xiamen in various development fields.
