Shannan has created a road network radiating from Zetang to the 12 surrounding counties, spanning over 3,700 kilometers. Most rural areas are now accessible by road. The completion of the Quxu Bridge, the first to across the Yarlung Zangbo River, has closely linked Shannan with Lhasa. The Yarlung Zangbo River's Zetang Bridge, completed in 1995, transformed the natural barrier into an access route. The paving of he Zetang-Gonggar Highway began in 1993, and the new road was put into use in November of 1994.(034 035)

Convenient transportation is a great advantage to Shannan's economic growth. Zetang is only 191 kilometers from Lhasa , the capital of Tibet. The Lhasa Gonggar Airport, the only international airport in Tibet, is located in Gonggar County of Shannan. Flights from Lhasa to Chengdu, Beijing, Chongqing and Katmandu have been opened and a new passenger terminal has been completed and put into use. The building of the Gonggar Airport has earned Shannan the name "doorway in the air".(036)

With the continuous development of road construction and with the needs of various undertakings, vehicle transportation has grown dramatically. In 1994, the prefecture had 6,755 passenger and cargo vehicles, forming a multiple transportation system with State-own enterprises as the backbone and supplemented by the collectives and individuals. In 1997, its total freight volume hit 230,000 tons, while the volume of passengers reached 257,000 people annually.(037)

Post and telecommunications work entered the prefecture in 1956 when the Shannan Prefecture Post and Telecommunications Bureau was established. The counties followed suite, andeach county had a sub-bureau by 1962. Since 1979, under the guidance of the party and the government, the prefecture's post and telecommunications undertakings have soaring. A fiberoptic cable has been laid between Zetang and Lhasa. Program controlled telephones, personal pagers, mobile telephones and other modern communication facilities have been opened to the public and have been linked with the national network. Post and telecommunication networks have been centered on Zetang and incorporating such mediums as landlines, microwave and satellite communications, and postal delivery vehicles.(038)