The No 1 tourism highways of the Yellow River, Great Wall, and Taihang Mountains, with a total length of 13,000 kilometers, in North China's Shanxi province will be fully completed this year to connect 970 tourist attractions and scenic spots across the province, according to Duan Xinyuan, deputy director of the Department of Transportation of Shanxi province, at the launch ceremony of the first international off-road vehicle cruise and rally competition on the three No 1 tourism highways.

Since 2018, Shanxi has invested nearly 100 billion yuan ($13.76 billion) in the construction of the 13,000 km tourism highways. To date, 11,000 km have been completed. When the highways are all complete, 970 tourist attractions and scenic spots across the province will be connected, forming a province-wide tourism highway network.

The aforementioned competition, lasting 21 days, will take competitors along the Yellow River, Great Wall, and Taihang Mountain No 1 tourism highways, starting in Yonghe county, Shanyin county and Yangcheng county, with a total mileage of 2,000 km. More than 300 off-road vehicle enthusiasts from all over the country will participate.

Hu Huibin, chief planner of the Culture and Tourism Department of Shanxi province, said that the cruise and rally competition will traverse tourism highways in different regions with diverse cultures, providing rich eating, living, traveling, shopping, and entertainment experiences along the tourism highways and aiming to help make Shanxi an internationally renowned cultural tourism destination.