Bridge between China and Taiwan

[spyfire27]

I made a presentation about my country today in class. I talked about a long bridge (12 km) that we have in my country, and I wanted to give an idea of the length by comparing with the distance there is between Taiwan and China. I said that if we want to build a bridge between Taiwan and China, it would have about 8.8 km. My Taiwanese teacher said that Taiwanese people don't want to build such a bridge, although it's been in the news for quite some time, and I think they even started to build a part of it.

I regret talking about that bridge because it raised a delicate issue with China. Do you think such kind of things would bother Taiwanese people?

[cfimages]

A bridge to Taiwan itself would need to be a lot longer than 8.8km. Think 200km or something like that. A bridge to Kinmen (Jinmen) or Mazu might be 8.8km.

[headhonchoII]

The Chinese do have a crazy plan for a bridge between Taiwan mainland and the China mainland, I'm not sure how feasible that is in reality. The Taiwan strait isn't that deep but it would be by far the longest bridge in the world. I believe the Chinese would do it just to make a point though.

[Baas Babelaas]

They are starting a bridge between Xiao Kinmen (Jinmen) and Da Kinmen (Jinmen) - next month.(http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/offshore-islands/2011/01/10/287016/Construction-of.html)

The next step is to link Kinmen (Jinmen) with Xiamen. Will take time though..

[Dog's_Breakfast]

When Lee Tenghui was president, he had an obsessive desire to build tunnels. He proposed four, but only one got built eventually (the one from Taipei to Yilan), and it was way over budget and took much longer than anyone expected. Also planned was a tunnel from Puli to Hualian and Pingdong to Taidong, but engineers said it was basically impossible. Most ambitious of all was a 140km tunnel from Taiwan to mainland China (via Penghu, I think). If I'm not mistaken, Lee's motive was basically to show the world what a great nation Taiwan is because "ours is bigger." Same mentality went into building Taipei 101, world's tallest building (until recently when Dubai got the highest).

Short bridges and tunnels can be economically justified, but really long ones are almost never cost effective. Aside from the cost of construction, they are a maintenance nightmare. Even the Kinmen (Jinmen) bridge looks to me like a white elephant. I doubt that it will ever generate enough revenue to pay for itself. And I really don't see what is so bad about using a ferry.

[the bear]

The Chinese do have a crazy plan for a bridge between Taiwan mainland and the China mainland, I'm not sure how feasible that is in reality. The Taiwan strait isn't that deep but it would be by far the longest bridge in the world. I believe the Chinese would do it just to make a point though.

Any way you can add substance to this claim? I doubt very much anyone would build a bridge that long.

[Dog's_Breakfast]

The Chinese do have a crazy plan for a bridge between Taiwan mainland and the China mainland, I'm not sure how feasible that is in reality. The Taiwan strait isn't that deep but it would be by far the longest bridge in the world. I believe the Chinese would do it just to make a point though.

Any way you can add substance to this claim? I doubt very much anyone would build a bridge that long.

I'm not the above poster, but there is a ludicrous (I think) bridge being built between Hong Kong and Macau, a length of 50 km. I say "ludicrous" because I can't imagine it being an improvement on the current high-speed ferry service, which takes under an hour and departures every 15 minutes or so.

Maybe it's being built for prestige. It probably isn't for political reasons, since both Hong Kong and Macau are now officially part of China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong- ... cau_Bridge

Prior to this, China did successfully complete the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, which at 35 km is impressive. Also not sure it's economically justified. It was a very challenging thing to build, and I wonder if it will last.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou_Bay_Bridge

Maybe a better analogy to a China-Taiwan bridge would be the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, especially the 1142-km section linking Golmud with Lhasa. I'm sure politics was involved, to symbolically link Tibet to "the Motherland." Very difficult construction, and many didn't think it was possible as it involved drilling through unstable mountains of ice. Maybe it won't last long, but who knows? They are supposed to be extending it to Nepal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai%E2 ... et_Railway

[headhonchoII]

Build it and they will come...with tanks and bombs and truck loads of dodgy food

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/9077 ... 85964.html

The Chinese build a lot of their infrastructure for prestige and nationalism. They don't actually care too much if it is not economic. Plus imagine the kickbacks on the contracts!

[the bear]

Build it and they will come...with tanks and bombs and truck loads of dodgy food

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/9077 ... 85964.html

jesus christ....there goes the fuckin' neighborhood.

[Betelnut]

Did Lee propose a bridge from Taiwan to Okinawa or the Japanese mainland? That would have made him quite happy I think.

When Lee Tenghui was president, he had an obsessive desire to build tunnels. He proposed four, but only one got built eventually (the one from Taipei to Yilan), and it was way over budget and took much longer than anyone expected. Also planned was a tunnel from Puli to Hualian and Pingdong to Taidong, but engineers said it was basically impossible. Most ambitious of all was a 140km tunnel from Taiwan to mainland China (via Penghu, I think). If I'm not mistaken, Lee's motive was basically to show the world what a great nation Taiwan is because "ours is bigger." Same mentality went into building Taipei 101, world's tallest building (until recently when Dubai got the highest).

Short bridges and tunnels can be economically justified, but really long ones are almost never cost effective. Aside from the cost of construction, they are a maintenance nightmare. Even the Kinmen (Jinmen) (Jinmen) bridge looks to me like a white elephant. I doubt that it will ever generate enough revenue to pay for itself. And I really don't see what is so bad about using a ferry.