China will build or renovate 300,000 km of rural roads this year to aid development in the countryside, Minister of Transport Li Shenglin said yesterday.

Last year, 188.7 billion yuan ($27.6 billion) was spent on building and renovating 391,000 km of rural roads, and the network now serves almost 89 percent of all towns, he said.

China had 3.68 million km of roads by the end of last year, more than triple what it had in 1978, he said.