GUIYANG, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Guizhou Province will pour more investment into road construction during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) to bring its total expressway mileage to 9,500 km.

The mileage of expressways in Guizhou has so far reached 8,368 km, according to a press conference held Tuesday by the information office of the provincial people's government.

Mountainous and hilly areas account for 92.5 percent of the province's total land space.

Qiu Zhenguo, director of the provincial transportation department, noted that 210,000 km of highways have been built on nearly 1.26 million hills across Guizhou. The province, which houses almost half the 100 tallest bridges in the world, is now home to 28,023 highway bridges stretching 4,400 km.

Qiu added that 17 million rural residents in nearly 200,000 villages have directly benefitted from these highways and bridges.