The first five months of this year witnessed a rapid growth of transportations by road, waterway, railway, and port. Among these transportation means, the total freight volume of road transportation accounted for 9.425 billion tons, up by 16.3% year on year and the trans- portation volume of railway reached 1.493 billion tons, which increased by 15.3% and was a gratifying result. ~l]xis year's donbt- digit growth rate was quite reasonable since the base uumber was Iow early last year when the Chinese economy was worst bit by the global financial crisis.