Specials
Building Big top 10
By Gao Yuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-12-17 15:25
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Editors' Note:
China has a tradition of building big. Tracing back to the Great Wall and the splendid imperial palaces, the ancient Chinese were addicted to the massive impact created by building gigantic constructions.
China never stopped constructing, especially after the government injected four trillion yuan to the market to stimulate the economy two years ago. The country's people decided to let the tradition continue by building new construction wonders in the cradle of civilization.
Following are 10 examples of how Chinese people endured the great legacy in the passing year:
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1. Beijing-Shanghai in four hours
3. Disneyland comes to Shanghai
5. 15-story hotel built in six days
6. Asian Games Town ready for sports gala
7. Nuke power firm fuels mega investment plan
8. China's longest subway set to open
10. Water transfer system to end drought
1. Beijing-Shanghai in four hours
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Track-laying work for the long-anticipated Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway was completed in late November.
"The project has entered its last stage," Lu Chunfang, vice-minister of railways, said at a ceremony to celebrate the latest success in the city of Bengbu, situated in the center of the railway line.
Since the project kicked off on April 18, 2008, some 135,000 workers have toiled to lay 1,318 km of high-quality tracks. The railway costs 220.94 billion yuan ($33.29 billion) in total and will shorten the travel from roughly ten hours to four hours.
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2. Expo Park comes to life
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The Shanghai World Expo formally opened its door to the public in May.
The Expo, carrying a theme of "Better City, Better Life", reflected the crystallization of wisdom about urban construction and vision of a better future life, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said while addressing the opening ceremony.
The construction of Expo Park started in August 2006. It covered a total area of 5.28 sq km.
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3. Disneyland comes to Shanghai
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Walt Disney Co on Nov 5 announced it had cleared an important hurdle in its efforts to build a multi-billion-dollar theme park in Shanghai, as it signed a detailed agreement with local authorities spelling out how they would jointly operate Shanghai Disneyland.
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4. The new underground city
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Beijing’s Dongcheng district will dig and clear out eight sq km of underground space in the next 20 years for construction including building shopping malls and subterranean roads.
With 625,000 residents and 37 percent of the city's protected historic sites, the 25 sq km district is bursting at the seams with new buildings and expanding streets.
So to allow for greater development, an ambitious plan was released on Jan 13 by the local government which claimed the "new Dongcheng" would have three floors of underground space.
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5. 15-story hotel built in six days
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A construction company that operates under the Broad Group took less than a week, or 136 hours of work, to erect and complete the outside of a 15-story prefabricated building in June in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan province.
The technology of using prefabricated materials to erect buildings has given this type of construction the edge over conventional construction methods in terms of efficiency, the company said.
The project involved only 200 construction workers.
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6. Asian Games Town ready for sports gala
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After more than two years of construction, Games Town in south Guangzhou accommodated around 40,000 athletes, coaches, technical officials and members of the media from around the world during the 16th Asian Games that ran from Nov 12 to 27.
In addition to an athletes' village with 13 apartment buildings, the Games Town included a media village, technical officials' village, international broadcast center and main press center.
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7. Nuke power firm fuels mega investment plan
China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC), the country's largest nuclear power company, plans to invest 800 billion yuan ($117.6 billion) into nuclear projects by 2020, in line with the country's move to accelerate the development of the industry.
Total investment in nuclear power plants, in which CNNC will hold controlling stakes, is expected to touch 500 billion yuan by 2015, Sun Youqi, vice-president of CNNC said in late September.
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8. China's longest subway set to open
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China's longest subway, stretching 50 kilometers running southwest to northwest of Beijing, will begin its trial run by the end of 2010, sources with the subway company said on Nov 3.
The new Line 4 will be extended 22.5 kilometers further south from the current section that ends at the South Fourth Ring Road and eleven passenger stations will be added.
The construction of the extension line has already been completed and engineers will conduct an important operational test on Nov 8, said officials with the Beijing MTR Corporation Limited. The current Line 4, opened last year, is 28.2 kilometers long and has 24 stations.
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9. HK-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge
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The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority completed the tendering process of the design and building contract for the artificial islands and tunnel of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
The contract mainly consists of the design and construction of an immersed tube tunnel of approximate 6.7 kilometers and two artificial islands, according to the statement.
The tunnel will become the longest immersed tube tunnel in the world on completion.
Since the artificial islands and tunnel will be constructed in a sea environment, the technical difficulties and challenges faced will be of world-class level taking into account the long distance ventilation and safety design, prefabrication and marine transportation of huge pipe segments, joining pipe segments under high water pressure, as well as construction of the west and east artificial islands.
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10. Water transfer system to end drought
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Diverting seawater from its eastern regions along thousands of kilometers of pipeline made of glass-reinforced plastic to the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in response to its decades-long drought is under consideration.
The proposal, which follows the country's South-to-North Water Diversion Project, will cover three provinces and autonomous regions in North and Northwest China, including Gansu and Inner Mongolia.
The route will transfer water from the coast of the Bohai Sea to the southeastern part of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and then enter Xinjiang.
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