China Completes Second under sea tunnel
When I was a mere child, the story of France meeting the UK in the tunnel under the English Channel which would later form the Eurostar was major news, however by 2010 the feat of under sea tunneling no longer appears to be major news. The latest tunnel between Qingdao and Huangdao is set to open in 2011 and is the second major under sea tunnelling project in China after the Xiamen-Fujian project:
From China Daily:
QINGDAO – Major digging finished Wednesday on an undersea tunnel linking the east and west parts of Qingdao, a coastal city of east China’s Shandong province, said local authorities.
It is China’s second undersea tunnel, with the first, which opened Monday to traffic, connecting Xiamen Island and the mainland in southeastern Fujian Province.
Qingdao’s Jiaozhou Bay Undersea Tunnel, running 7.8 kilometers with 3.95 kilometers undersea, links the urban Tuandao district and Xuejia Island of Huangdao District, said Xue Qingzeng, spokesman for the publicity department of Qingdao City Government.
The construction of the tunnel started in December of 2006. The tunnel is scheduled to open to traffic in the first half of 2011, which will help cut travel time from one side of the bay to the other from one hour to ten minutes. The cost of the tunnel is 3.3 billion yuan (about US$485 million).
Qingdao and Huangdao will have some four routes of connection in the next few years with the tunnel being completed, the passenger ferry and overland routes have been major routes of connection, however Qingdao government also plan to add an oversea bridge which will be finished in 2011 also.
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hi,
although the qingdao-huangdao is impressive, at 7.8km – with just under 4km undersea – it is not really comparable to the channel tunnel, which has a 37km undersea section.
the channel tunnel was not a global news event only because of its length, though. i think it had much more to do with the symbolic land-link between france and england, two traditional rivals. it had also been considered for over 100 years before being finally built, so the concept had a lengthy, controversial history.
now if a tunnel between china and japan were built, *that* would be news. but overall, i think if the channel tunnel was being built today, it would still be big news (even though technically, it might not be as challenging anymore).
and your point is? This site covers news on China, no one said this is absolutely amazing or international news. Like CCT stated, this is no longer a big deal anymore.
I think a closer analogy would be Japan & Korea. Their rivalry goes back to the middle ages. They are also geographically much closer. Though the area is ridden with earthquakes, so a tunnel might not be a great idea. Maybe a cable-anchored floating bridge/tunnel.
For China I think a Hainan tunnel would be the most technically feasible, while a Taiwan tunnel more symbolic. A Bering Strait tunnel would also steal the Channel’s spotlight, as Russia and US aren’t exactly in bed yet. (Britain and France however have been buddies for the last hundred years)
No, that’s not what I meant. They said:
“When I was a mere child, the story of France meeting the UK in the tunnel under the English Channel which would later form the Eurostar was major news, however by 2010 the feat of under sea tunneling no longer appears to be major news.”
My point was that undersea tunneling still *can be* major news, it’s just that in this case the project wasn’t especially political or technically challenging.
I read CCT on RSS daily, and have been doing so for a year or so. I understand the site’s content and just wanted to offer a different perspective on the author’s point.
Okay then…
we know that this isn’t big news, thanks for pointing that out?