China’s Unnecessary Mega-Bridges!

What a powerful photo: poverty-stricken Chinese farmers working in the shadow of one of the world’s greatest bridges – a bridge that is so expensive to cross they will never do so in their lifetime!

“Squinting up from a dirt road below, Gu Tianyong, a 66-year-old farmer, pondered the colossus, which is a shortcut linking southwestern China with the east coast.

“The government wouldn’t have built it if it was useless,” he said. “It does nothing for me, but must be useful for the country.”

That quote is from a terrific investigative piece in The New York Times that looks at China’s building boom, particularly bridges that don’t seem to be needed!

Here is more of the story:

“…fewer than a third of the 65 Chinese highway and rail projects he examined were “genuinely economically productive,” while the rest contributed more to debt than to transportation needs. Unless such projects are reined in, the study warned, “poorly managed infrastructure investments” could push the nation into financial crisis.”

The New York Times does a great job putting these mega-bridges in perspective, explaining how China has a long history of massive construction projects:

“In the country that built the Great Wall, major feats of infrastructure have long been a point of pride. China has produced engineering coups like the world’s highest railway, from Qinghai Province to Lhasa, Tibet; the world’s largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam; and an 800-mile canal from the Yangtze River system to Beijing that is part of the world’s biggest water transfer project.”

Bravo to the New York Times for their reporting.

As they point out, the Yangtze River is part of the world’s largest “water transfer” project – and it uprooted millions of people in the process.

There is a terrific, and very sobering documentary about the Yangtze River project – see the trailer here:

https://johnrieber.com/2014/09/26/china-siberia-fiji-penguins-great-controversial-travel-documentaries/

The reason I subscribe to the digital New York Times is because they are still doing in-depth, investigative reporting like this, which we need now more than ever – here is the entire article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/asia/china-bridges-infrastructure.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

And what about this – the world’s longest bridge? In China of course!

According to NPR:

“the 26.3-mile long Jiaozhou Bay bridge opened in China. It links the “eastern port city of Qingdao to an offshore island, Huangdao.” Now that it’s done, it will cut the time to drive from Qingdao to Huangdao by 20 to 30 minutes.

According to Xinhua, China’s official news agency, the span cost $2.3 billion. It’s long enough that it could span the English Channel at its narrowest point, with about six miles to spare, the BBC says.”

I want to visit China one day, partly to see mage-structures like that – and to walk on a glass bridge, like this one:

Yes, China built a glass bridge over a wide canyon – and it cracked! See that story here:

https://johnrieber.com/2015/07/11/worlds-most-dangerous-hiking-trail-cliffhanger-restaurants-chinas-extreme-adventures/

I have also shared the story of a highway that was built in China – not going across the river but alongside it!

You can see more pictures of this technical marvel here:

https://johnrieber.com/2015/02/28/amazing-china-highway-runs-over-length-of-river-wild-china-adventures/

Let me know if you’ve been across one of China’s amazing “super bridges!”

Categories: Books / Media, China, documentary films, Exotic Travel, Great Films, Independent Cinema, Memoirs, Movies, Politics, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir, Uncategorized

Tags: advanturous China tourist spots, adventure escapes, adventure food, adventure food China, Adventure Travel, adventure travel china, adventurous food, amazing highway, amazing travel, amazing travel adventures, amazing travel sights, architecture, asian extreme cinema, Beijing crowds, beijing pollution, best china movies, best travel books, bizarre chinese restaurant, Brad Pitt on Japanese TV, Cannibals, car travel, catch your own fish restaurant, China, china book, china bridges, china cliff restaurant, china documentaries, china glass bridge, china glass bridge cracks, china pollution, china rivers, China tourism, China tourist locations, china travel, China unique food, china's bridge building boom, China's dangerous hiking trails, China's Hua Shan trail, China's most unique restaurants, China's natural wonders, China's river highway, China's tourism, chinese dangerous food, chinese food, chinese lays potato chips, chinese pollution, chinese potato chips, chinese restaurants, chinese river highway, cliffhanger, cliffhanger restaurant, cliffside restaurant, controversial building construction, crowded Beijing subway, crowded subway, crowded subways, dangerous backpacking, dangerous food, dangerous hikes, dangerous hiking, dangerous trips, documentary films, English restaurants, entertainment, European travel, exotic restaurants, exotic travel, extreme adventures, extreme cusine, extreme hike, extreme hikes, extreme hiking, extreme travel, Fangweng Restaurant, Food, food adventures, food adventures China, food criticism, food review, food reviews, getting stoned with savages, gourmet restaurants, great wall of china, highways, Hua Shan trail, huffiest, J. Maarten Troost, London restaurants, Lost On Planet China, memoirs, most crowded subway, most crowded subways, most dangerous hikes, most unique restaurants, new york times, new york times digital edition, new york times investigative reporting, new york times reporting, Pork Fried Rice, potato chips, restaurant food, restaurant review, restaurant reviews, Restaurants, river highway, robot restaurants, rock in China, roller coaster restaurant, savages, seafood, sex, sex lives, shanghai china, Shanghai restaurant, Shanghai subway map, shanghai subways, Shanghai toilet restaurant, Shanghai travel, Shanghair toilet restaurant, south seas, south seas adventures, south seas travel, subway videos, subways, Susannah Breslin, sylvester stallone, the great wall, The Lockup, The Lockup restaurant, The Sex Lives Of Cannibals, toilet restaurant, Tokyo food, tokyo restaurants, Tokyo!, transportation, travel, travel adventures, travel blog, travel books, travel china, travel food, travel guide, travel journal, travel journals, travel memoir, travel memoirs, travel vacations, Travel Writer, travel writing, Uncategorized, unique archtecturre, unique China highway, unique chinese travel, unique dining, unique highways, unique Japanese restaurant, unique potato chip flavors, unique restaurant dining, unique restaurant food, unique restaurants, unique travel, wacky China restaurant, wacky China travel, wacky Chinese hiking trails, wacky food, Wacky Food advanturous China tourist spots, wacky restaurants, water highway, wild entertainment, world's best destinations, world's best restaurants, world's best travel, world's best travel sites, world's longest bridge, world's most crowded destinations, world's most crowded subway, world's most dangerous hiking trail, world's most dangerous restaurants, world's most extreme vacations, world's most unique food, world's most unique restaurants, world's wildest entertainment, world's wildest travel, yak dumplings, yaks