Toll-free roads to take Chinese home this Spring Festival

 BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- In two-and-a-half months, Chinese people will celebrate the Spring Festival, China's most important traditional festival for family reunions and a time when most people make homebound trips.

Chinese car-owners may find this year's trip home more pleasant than before, as the government has vowed¹ to continue to implement² a toll³-free policy for passenger cars and urged local authorities to ensure that trips home are safe, smooth and convenient during week-long holiday.

He Jianzhong, spokesman for the Ministry⁴ of Transport, told a press conference here on Thursday that local authorities should build on the experiences drawn⁵ from the policy's first implementation⁶ during the National Day holiday in October.

This August, China's State Council approved the program to lift road tolls⁷ for passenger cars taking highways during major Chinese holidays.

Passenger cars with seven seats or less and motorcycles will get a free pass through toll roads, bridges and tunnels during the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Labor⁸ Day and National Day holidays, according to the program.

During the eight-day National Day holiday from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7, the toll-free policy attracted more drivers to hit the road and thus, traffic jams were common on freeways around the country.

To tackle these problems, local authorities and transport staff came up many good practices to accelerate passes through toll collection point and make the trips smooth, according to He.

"The effective measures have laid a good foundation for the work of safeguarding the toll-free travels of small passenger cars during major holidays," he said.

He said that the country will continue to implement the toll-free policies during the upcoming Spring Festival, and it will do an even better job to satisfy those taking advantage of the policy.

Local authorities should issue concrete measures in implementing⁹ the policy, including traffic control in toll collection areas, signs to guide traffic and the dissemination¹⁰ of traffic information, he said.

To make vehicle passes convenient, smooth and efficient, each province or city can decide on their own methods of toll collection management according to the respective scales of road networks and traffic conditions, he said.

During the early days of the October holiday, toll collections on freeways chose to stop each car to give each driver a toll card just like on ordinary days, which slowed down traffic and caused many congestions.

Later, the Ministry of Transport ordered freeway toll collections to grant direct passes for qualified¹¹ passenger vehicles starting from Oct. 4 to speed up the process.

He said local governments should also improve information services to guide drivers' choices of traveling time and routes, and intensify¹² supervision¹³ on the situations of road networks to take effective measures against possible emergencies.

As the Spring Festival falls in winter, the country's transportation system will also face tough challenges from cold weather, especially ice and snow on roads.

He urged local authorities to make joints¹⁴ efforts with the country's meteorological administration to fully¹⁵ understand forecasts on weather conditions and provide drivers with necessary weather information.

They should also make full preparations for cold weather, including obtaining equipment for clearing ice and snow from roads, ensuring the sound management of emergency response teams and constructing emergency passes, the spokesman said.

The upcoming Spring Festival falls on Feb. 10, 2013 and will be marked by a seven-day national holiday.

1 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

2 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

3 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

6 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

7 tolls   

（缓慢而有规律的）钟声( toll的名词复数 )； 通行费； 损耗； （战争、灾难等造成的）毁坏

参考例句：

• A man collected tolls at the gateway. 一个人在大门口收通行费。
• The long-distance call tolls amount to quite a sum. 长途电话费数目相当可观。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 implementing   

v.实现( implement的现在分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• -- Implementing a comprehensive drug control strategy. ――实行综合治理的禁毒战略。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• He was in no hurry about implementing his unshakable principle. 他并不急于实行他那不可动摇的原则。 来自辞典例句

10 dissemination   

传播,宣传,传染(病毒)

参考例句：

• The dissemination of error does people great harm. 谬种流传，误人不浅。
• He was fully bent upon the dissemination of Chinese culture all over the world. 他一心致力于向全世界传播中国文化。

11 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

12 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

13 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

14 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。