The three of them didn't stay in Shenghai, they drove back to Lin'an the same day.
The two cities are quite close, and after the highways were connected in later years, the distance is less than 180 kilometers.
The highway between Jiaxing and Lin'an was already open, although the two cities' highway hadn't been completed yet.
The Hangyong Expressway was the first highway constructed in Zhejiang Province, passing through Jiaxing, Lin'an, Shaoxing, and Ningbo, with a total length of 248 kilometers. It was fully operational by the end of '98.
There were still very few highways in the country at the time, unlike the extensive highway network in later years where even small counties and towns had highways.
Zhejiang Province was one of the developed provinces in China with plenty of plain areas, making road construction easier and highway construction relatively fast.
