URUMQI, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Xinjiang has spent 3.68 billion yuan to build and resurface 5,284 kilometers of rural roads so far this year.

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in northwestern China, spent 21.8 billion yuan (3.264 billion U.S. dollars) on 38,029 kilometers of country road in the last five years, benefiting 5.59 million residents, the regional transportation authority said.

Xinjiang will continue to increase investment in rural road construction, as a number of villages -- 60, at the end of last year -- were not connected to the road network, and 989 villages have poor roads.

Xinjiang is about the size of Alaska. Road construction is difficult and expensive in the region's mountainous southern part.