China National Highway 312

China National Highway 312 (312国道), also referred to as Route 312 or The Mother Road, is a key east-west route beginning in Shanghai and ending at Khorgas, Xinjiang in the Ili River valley, on the border with Kazakhstan. In total it spans 5,000 km (3,100 mi), passing through Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu before ending in Xinjiang. Besides Shanghai, cities of note on the route include Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Hefei, Xinyang, Nanyang, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Jiayuguan and Ürümqi.

National Highway 312
312国道
Route information
Length	5,000 km (3,000 mi)
Major junctions
From	Shanghai
To	Khorgas
Highway system
China National Highways National Trunk Highway System ← G311 → G313

It theoretically starts at People's Square, the Zero-Kilometre point for all highways starting in Shanghai, but the first part of the road, Cao-An Highway, starts at Cao-Yang New Village.

The road was the subject of Rob Gifford's 2007 book China Road, in which he describes traveling the entire length of Route 312 from the East China Sea to Central Asia.[1]

The G40 Shanghai–Xi'an Expressway has replaced National Highway 312 as the main route between those two cities.