The provincial development and reform commission of Zhejiang recently released a plan to strengthen transportation between its 11 cities, and Zhoushan is one of its focuses.

The move is a response to the building of a "one-hour transportation circle" in the Yangtze River Delta region which aims to see the traffic time between cities in the region reduced to one hour by 2022.

Several cities in Zhejiang, including Wenzhou, Taizhou, Lishui and Zhoushan are still lagging behind in this regard. Without a high-speed rail, it now takes around three hours to travel from Zhoushan to Hangzhou by bus and two hours are needed from downtown Zhoushan to the city's Shengsi county by ferry. 

According to the plan, efforts will be made to accelerate the building of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway so that it can be completed by 2025. By that time, all 11 cities in Zhejiang will have high-speed rails. The rail traffic between Zhoushan and Hangzhou will be cut to within one and a half hours.

In addition, short-haul airlines will be launched between Zhoushan and Hangzhou, as well as between downtown Zhoushan and Shengsi county, by 2022, so that it will take only one hour to travel between Zhoushan and Hangzhou by air, and 30 minutes between downtown Zhoushan and Shengsi county.