China National Highway 312 (312国道), also referred to as Route 312 or The Mother Road, is a key east-west route beginning in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

and ending at

Khorgas Khorgas, officially known as KorgasThe official spelling according to , (Beijing, '' SinoMaps Press'' 1997); ( zh, s=霍尔果斯, t=霍爾果斯, p=Huò'ěrguǒsī; kk, قورعاس, Qorǵas), also known as ''Chorgos'', ''Gorgos'', ''Horgos ...

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

in the Ili River valley, on the border with

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. In total it spans , passing through

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...

, Gansu before ending in Xinjiang. Besides Shanghai, cities of note on the route include Suzhou,

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

, Hefei,

Xinyang Xinyang (; postal: Sinyang) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China, the southernmost administrative division in the province. Its total population was 6,234,401 according to the 2020 census. As of t ...

, Nanyang,

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

, Lanzhou, Jiayuguan and

Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...

. It theoretically starts at

People's Square People's Square is a large public square in the Huangpu District, Shanghai, Huangpu District of Shanghai. It is south of Nanjing Road (West) and north of Huaihai Road (East). People's Square is the site of Shanghai's municipal government head ...

, the Zero-Kilometre point for all highways starting in

, but the first part of the road, Cao-An Highway, starts at Cao-Yang New Village. The road was the subject of

Rob Gifford Rob Gifford is a British radio correspondent and journalist. He has degrees in Chinese Studies from Durham University and in Regional Studies (East Asia) from Harvard University. He began to learn Mandarin Chinese in 1987 whilst in China. Gif ...

's 2007 book ''

China Road ''China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power'' is a book on travel literature by Rob Gifford, first published on January 1, 2007 by Random House. The book documents Gifford's 2004 trip across China National Highway 312 from Shanghai ...

'', in which he describes traveling the entire length of Route 312 from the East China Sea to

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. The

G40 Shanghai–Xi'an Expressway The Shanghai–Xi'an Expressway (), designated as G40 and commonly referred to as the Hushaan Expressway () is an expressway that connects the cities of Shanghai and Xi'an, Shaanxi. It is in length. The expressway was completed after Chongqi B ...

has replaced National Highway 312 as the main route between those two cities.

Route and distance

Highway G312 (G30) Xinjiang, China - panoramio (1)

Highway G312 Xinjiang, China - panoramio (10)

Accidents

On October 10 2019, a bridge of G312 crossing Xigang Road in Wuxi was collapsed by several overloaded trucks, killing 3 people and injuring 2 others.

References

External links

Official website of Ministry of Transport of PRC
{{China National Highways 312 Road transport in Shanghai Transport in Jiangsu Transport in Anhui Transport in Henan Transport in Shaanxi Transport in Gansu Transport in Ningxia Transport in Xinjiang

Route and distance

Accidents

See also

References

External links