Posted on 05/10/2014 8:46:00 AM PDT by Theoria
China is planning to build a train line that would, in theory, connect Beijing to the United States. According to a report in the Beijing Times, citing an expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese officials are considering a route that would start in the country's northeast, thread through eastern Siberia and cross the Bering Strait via a 125-mile long underwater tunnel into Alaska.
"Right now we're already in discussions. Russia has already been thinking about this for many years," says Wang Mengshu, the engineer cited in the article. The proposed "China-Russia-Canada-America" line would be some 8,000 miles long, 1,800 miles longer than the Trans-Siberian railroad. The tunnel that the Chinese would help bore beneath the icy seas would be four times the length of what traverses the English Channel.
That's reason enough to be skeptical of the project, of which there are few details beyond what was attributed to the one official cited by the state-run Beijing Times. Meanwhile, a report in the state-run China Daily insists the country does have the technology and means to complete a construction project of this scale, including another tunnel that would link the Chinese province of Fujian with nearby Taiwan.
In the past half decade or so, China has embarked on an astonishing rail construction spree, laying down tens of thousands of miles tracks and launching myriad high-speed lines. It has signaled its intent to build a "New Silk Road" -- a heavy-duty freight network through Central Asia that would connect with Europe via rail rather than the old caravans that once bridged West and East. A map that appeared on Xinhua's news site outlines the route below, alongside a parallel vision for a "maritime Silk Road."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping.
I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year)
Donald Fagen
Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream`s in sight
You`ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it`s clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from NewYork to Paris
Well by seventy-six we`ll be A.O.K.
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there`s time
The fix is in
You`ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we`ve go to win
Here at home we`ll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There`ll be spandex jackets one for everyone
What a beautiful world this`ll be
What a glorious time to be free
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from NewYork to Paris
(More leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We`ll be clean when their work is done
We`ll be eternally free yes and eternally young
What a beautiful world this`ll be
What a glorious time to be free.....
Sounds like a Popular Science pipe dream.
It can probably be done, but would it be worth it?
True, some plans of tunnels and bridges across the Bering Straight are 150 years old, the problem is boats are more convenient to move goods across Pacific.
“What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free”
what a prescient song that was!
well i hope it is as successful as a similar project underway in Seattle Washington.well,if anything major goes wrong they can always get Godzilla to move any heavy equipment that gets stuck in the earth.
Let’s see: a 125 mile long underwater tunnel built by the Chinese. What could possibly go wrong?
How many Teutonic plate zones would that tunnel pass?
I would never ride inside such a tunnel.
Don’t they have airplanes?
Not to mention connecting the two sides of the narrow parts of the Bering Straight is connecting nowhere to nowhere.
Reminds me of Cal S. Bunyan, Paul Bunyan’s brother, who constructed a railroad known as the Ireland, Jerusalem, Australian & Southern Michigan Line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_Cannonball#Origins
Yes, it is that makes boats convenient.
Ahhhhh doesn’t a major fault line run right through the straight between Russia and Alaska. .not the best place for a tunnel a bridge maybe but not a tunnel.
Sarah Palin’ s geopolitical Bearing Straights in play
Not sure what an ornate german dish would have to do with it ;) But those tectonic plates would seem to be a formidable engineering obstacle. The route would seem to be riding the northern edge of the pacific “ring of fire” -not the optimal place to put a 125+ mile underwater tunnel.
I really don't care who builds the thing, the big nut to crack is the route will take it through the Pacific "ring of fire" (subduction zone) twice. That is not a realistic goal.
Regards,
GtG
Maybe their politicians get kickbacks from huge construction projects like ours do.
When you connect any TWO populated points on the globe there is always a “nowhere” in beween, else the two places would be one massive contiguous populated zone....the US interstates pass through a lot of nowhere aka fly over country
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