Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators

Length of Railways in Operation refers to the total length of the trunk line for passenger and freight transportation in full operation or temporary operation.

Length of Electrified Trunk Line refers to the length of the trunk line capable for the running of electrified locomotives and having been put into operation.

Length of Automatic-blocking and Semi-automatic-blocking Railways Blocking is a spacing technique by which a section of the railway only allows one train to pass at a time with the aim of ensuring traffic safety. Automatic-blocking is the blocking method that signal display transforms automatically based on the state of train operation and related block partition, while the driver operates according to the signal display. The section which is blocked using the above method is called as length of automatic-blocking railways. Semi-blocking is realized manually. After the train departs based on signal display, the departure signal machine will perform automatic shutdown blocking, while the station attendant will conduct restoration of section blocking with arrival confirmation of the entire train. The section which is blocked using the above method is called as length of semi-automatic-blocking railways.

Length of Highways refers to the actual length of highways at the end of reference period. It covers public roads running vehicles among cities, city and rural areas, township (villages), highways passing through streets at small cities and towns, length of bridges and tunnels, width of ferry piers. It does not include the length of streets in cities, dead end highways, the length of streets built for agricultural (forest) production and inside factories (mines). It can only be calculated with the actual mileage having been completed, checked and accepted or put into operation. If two or more highways go the same section of the way, the length of the section is only calculated for once.

Length of Navigable Inland Waterways refers to the length of natural rivers, lakes, reservoirs and canals that are open to navigation for ships and rafts during a given period. It includes the channels with annual seasonal navigation for more than three months other than the waterways only for scattered bamboo and wooden rafts. If two provinces share one river as the border, the length of waterways will be half divided for each province to avoid duplication.

Length of Routes with Scheduled Flights refers to the total length of all routes for scheduled flights, which is calculated using million kilometres as the unit. There are usually two ways to calculate the route length: duplicated calculation and non-duplicated calculation. Duplicated calculation means that the same segment of different routes can be added duplicately, while the non-duplicated calculation allows the same segment of different routes be counted once only.

Length of Oil (Gas) Pipelines refers to the actual transport distance of oil, gas and oil products, an indicator reflecting the length of transportation routes and a reference to calculate the freight-kilometers. For those sections with double pipelines and alternate pipeline, the length will be calculated according to the length of single pipeline in principle. If the double pipelines perform the transportation at the same time and unable to be counted separately, the length of pipelines will be the length of double pipelines divided by 2.

Freight (Passenger) Traffic refers to the weight of freight (number of passenger) transported with various means within a specific period of time. This indicator reflects the service of the transport industry towards the national economy and people’s living conditions, as well as an important indicator used in formulating and monitoring transport production plans and research into the scale and pace of transport development. Freight transport is calculated in tons and passenger traffic is calculated in terms of number of persons. Freight transport is calculated in terms of the actual weight of the goods and takes no account of the type of freight and distance of travel. Passenger traffic is calculated by the principle that one person can be counted only once in one trip and takes no account of the travelling distance and ticket price. The passengers who travel with a half price ticket or a child’s ticket is also calculated as one person.

Freight (Passenger) Traffic Density refers to the freight (passenger) traffic volume carried by a particular means of transportation during a given period through one kilometre of a specific section of transportation route. The formula is as follows:

Freight (passenger) traffic density reflects how busy freight (passenger) traffic is on transportation routes. It provides an important basis for balancing transport capability and throughput capability, planning construction and upgrading of transport routes, installing technical facilities and studying the distribution of transport networks.

Freight Ton-kilometres (Passenger-kilometres) refers to the sum of the product of the volume of transported cargo (passengers) multiplied by the transport distance. It is an important indicator to reflect the achievement of the transportation industry. This is an important indicator to show the total results of the transport industry; to prepare and examine the transport plan; and to serve as the main basic data for calculating the efficiency, labour productivity and unit cost of transport. Normally, the shortest distance between the departure station and the destination station (i.e., the payable distance) is the basis in calculating the freight ton-kilometres. The formula is as follows:

Average Static Load of Freight Cars refers to the average cargo weight when loaded onto each freight car under the static condition. For its calculation, the following formula is applied:

Average Daily Haul of Freight Locomotives refers to the average total ton-kilometres accomplished by each freight transport locomotive over one day and night during a given period of time. It includes both the weight of the goods carried and the dead weight of the train itself. It is a comprehensive indicator reflecting the locomotive efficiency in terms of both time and the pulling force.

Volume of Freight Handled in Coastal Ports above Designated Size refers to the volume of cargo passing in and out of the harbour area of the major coastal ports and having been loaded and unloaded. The volume of freight handled may be classified by direction of cargo flow as in-port freight and out-port freight, or by nature of cargo as freight for domestic trade and freight for foreign trade. It can also be classified by type of freight based on the existing standard classification for transportation industry “Classification and Coding for Freight”.

Possession of Civil Transport Vessels refers to the total number at the end of reference period of operating transport vessels owned by Chinese enterprises or privately that are registered in the water transportation management institutions and permitted to perform cargo transport activities (including vessels with foreign flags but owned by Chinese enterprises or citizens). Non-transport vessels and vessels used for agriculture and fishery are not included.

Possession of Civil Motor Vehicles refer to the total numbers of vehicles that are registered and received vehicles license tags according to the Work Standard for Motor Vehicles Registration formulated by the Transport Management Office under the department of public security at the end of the reference period. They are divided into categories. According to the structure of motor vehicles, they are divided into passenger vehicles, trucks and others; according to ownership into private vehicles and vehicles for the unit’s use; according to kind of usage into working vehicles and non-working vehicles; and according to size of vehicles into large passenger vehicles, medium-sized passenger vehicles, small passenger vehicles and mini passenger vehicles, heavy trucks, light-heavy trucks, light trucks and mini-trucks.

Business Volume of Post and Telecommunications refers to the total amount of postal and telecommunication services, expressed in value terms, provided by the post and telecommunications departments for society. This indicator reflects the overall results of development of postal and telecommunication services. It can be classificated as postal services and telecommunication services. Business volume of post and telecommunications is the sum of each service in kind multiplying with its correspondent unit price (constant price).

Mobile Telephone Subscribers refer to persons who have gone through registration procedures in the operation points of enterprises engaged in telecommunications and are hence connected with the mobile telephone communication network through the mobile telephone switchboards and occupy mobile phone numbers. Included are various types of subscriber, prepaid users for intelligent network and wireless network card users.

Internet Users refer to the number of Chinese citizens aged 6 and over who use the Internet in the past six months.

Local Telephone Subscribers refer to all subscribers who have gone through registration procedures in the operation points of enterprises engaged in telecommunications and are hence connected to the local telecommunications service provider through fixed line network. Included are general subscribers, wireless local telephone subscribers, public telephones subscribers, N-ISDN subscribers and intelligent network terminal subscribers.

Urban Telephone Subscribers refer to the number of telephone subscribers, located at the municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities under the jurisdiction of province, cities at prefecture level, downtown and suburb of city at county level town and county towns according to the administrative division, including subscribers in rural mineral area, forest area, military area that are at or above county level.

Rural Telephone Subscribers refer to telephone subscribers, located at the towns and villages outside the coverage of urban areas according to the administrative division.

Household Telephone Subscribers refer to all kinds of subscribers with telephone sets paid privately or installed in the dwelling units of residents, and registered as private subscribers or residence subscribers for payment.

Capacity of Long Distance Telephone Exchanges refers to the rated capacity of telephone exchanges to connect long distance telephone network by enterprises engaged in telecommunications.

Capacity of Office Telephone Exchanges refers to the capacity (measured in gate) of telephone exchanges installed in the offices of telecommunication service providers for communication between fixed telephones. It includes the capacity of access network equipment (capacity of equipment installed in the offices of telecommunication service providers for connecting distant nodes of voice users).

Capacity of Mobile Telephone Exchanges refers to the capacity of the maximum services provided to subscribers at any one time as computed based on a certain model of calls distribution and transacting capacity of the mobile telephone exchanges. It is calculated based on the actual capacity of equipments connected to network through cutover and put into operation officially at the end of the reference period.

Broadband Connection Terminals refer to the connection terminals to internet users actually installed and put into operation, including connection terminals for XDSL, connection terminals for LAN, and other types of connection terminals. N-ISDN connection terminals are not included.