In China, annual natural gas consumption is over 67 billion cubic metres with an expected growth rate of 10% per year. Most of the gas is transported from well heads to markets over cross-country gas networks, which requires construction of the West to East Gas Network - one of the largest gas networks in the world. Presently, the network is comprised of four large-diameter pipelines and will include most major gas pipelines in China in the future. The network distributes approximately 30 x 10(9) m(3) gas per year, of which 3% to 5% is burned to power the gas transportation. At current gas prices, gas transportation costs are roughly USD 350 million per year, which is a considerable cost that could be reduced by improvements in network design and operation. This paper reports on a study aimed at optimizing the network to minimize its energy consumption and cost. The large size and complex geometry of the network required breaking the study down into simple components, optimizing operation of the components locally, re-combining the optimized components into the network and optimizing the network globally. This four-step approach employed four different optimization methods, penalty function method, pattern search, enumeration and non-sequential dynamic programming, to solve the problem. The results show that cost savings, because of global optimization, are reduced with increased throughput. For example, increasing the gas rate from 67-90 million m(3)/d would reduce operational cost savings because of optimization from 23% 1.15%. Moreover, the study shows that if the compressors were fully loaded at their maximum rating, the optimized operation would approach the one being presently practiced. Thus, the optimization is effective and much needed when the system does not work at its maximum capacity, a typical case in the present operations of Chinese gas networks.