The Zheng'an International Guitar Industrial Park, located in Zunyi city, in southwest China's Guizhou province, is home to nearly 20 guitar manufacturers - almost half of all guitar manufacturers in China.

For Zhen Chuanjiu, general manager of the Shenqu Musical Instrument Manufacturer, one of the companies in the park, however, all of this was almost impossible to imagine before October 2015. That was when the highway linking Zheng'an to the rest of the province and beyond officially opened to the public.

Guizhou's rugged and rocky terrain can make traveling a burdensome task; it increases transportation costs and aggravates poverty. Traffic was always the main issue hindering the province's development.

But not any longer.

Guizhou has been focusing on the construction of public transport infrastructure since early 2009. Thanks to new high-speed railway lines, airports, bridges and highways, life is now much more convenient for local residents and businesses than ever before.

The traffic success story of the mountainous province has been one of the hot topics among Guizhou deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.

Museum of bridges

Gao Weidong, director of Guizhou's Provincial Department of Transportation, holds up a photo of Beipanjiang Bridge, the longest slant legged steel bridge in Asia, to show to the media in Beijing, March 8. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Gao Weidong, director of Guizhou's Provincial Department of Transportation and one of the deputies to the 13th National People's Congress from Guizhou province, showcased photos of six great bridges in the mountainous province to the media during an open day at the conference in Beijing on March 8.

Regarded as a "museum of bridges", Guizhou boasts over 40 spots among the world's top 100 bridges. Two of the bridges, namely Balinghe Bridge and Beipanjiang Bridge, won Luban Prizes for Construction Projects, the Oscars of Chinese architecture, in 2017.