Before rush hour: A view of the Hohhot Third Ring Road, before it started operating. [Photo by Wang Shaokai/For en.hhhtnews.com] 

The Hohhot Third Ring Road opened to traffic on Dec 25 – in Hohhot, capital city of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – according to local media reports. 

The Hohhot Third Ring Road is the longest construction project in the capital's elevated road network project, with a total length of 87.8 kilometers. 

Included in the completed ring road was a viaduct that is 31.1 kilometers long, a 7 km ground connection line and seven overpasses.

The Hohhot Third Ring Road is one of the major infrastructure projects planned and implemented by the city, as part of the construction of an overall urban traffic road network system. 

In the wake of its opening, Hohhot is now said to be efficiently connected with urban expressways such as the Horqin Expressway, Jinsheng Expressway and the Jinhai Elevated Road.

What's more, the surrounding area of the city is now effectively connected with highways such as the Ring Expressway, S43 and the New 110 National Highway. 

Moreover, it is an important part of the construction of the "one horizontal, two vertical and four rings" elevated road network system.

As such, it is seen as being of great significance in promoting the urbanization of the Yili Future Intelligence and Health Valley area and the villages and towns along the line. 

Moving forwards, plans are for Hohhot to optimize and upgrade the expressways around the city and to develop the Fourth Ring Road. 

Open for business: Cars stream onto the new Hohhot Third Ring Road [Photo by Wang Shaokai/For en.hhhtnews.com]