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Beipanjiang Bridge, suspended 565m above China’s south-west mountains [video]
- factsaresacred 9y agoGreat video and editing. What China has achieved is truly incredible. For anybody young and commitment free (or even just commitment free), you should go there. Cool people, so much opportunity, and you get to live in the heart of a rising super-power. Also, that guy speaks Chinese like an excited teenager.
- FreakyT 9y ago> For anybody young and commitment free (or even just commitment free), you should go there. Are there english speaking startups one could work at? Are work-permit requirements doable?
- liuw 9y agoThere are tons of foreigners in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen so there must be some ways to get into the country (and work there). A few years back a friend told me work permit was easy to get as long as you got a sponsor. Not sure how hard it is today though.
- dfguo 9y agoStrikingly is a YC-funded company based in Shanghai. We sponsor visa. Typically, a person with 2 years of working experience can get work visa issued in few weeks. We are hiring people in engineering, sales and marketing departments https://www.strikingly.com/s/careers https://www.strikingly.com/s/careers
- slfnflctd 9y agoThe infrastructure projects alone are fascinating to me. It's like traveling back in time to witness Eisenhower's interstate highways going up in the 1960s, only bigger and better. > that guy speaks Chinese like an excited teenager So, in the modern American documentary interview style even when everyone's speaking English, then?
- mc32 9y agoHe might have lived there in country a while and simply copying a popular style of light reporting. It's not unusual.
- tondoter 9y ago> Cool people, so much opportunity, and you get to live in the heart of a rising super-power. You probably have never lived in China. China has an authoritarian government that censors everything (last checked, livestream and korean pop music and every good external websites outside China), which means there's no such thing as 'cool' in china except dictated by the government. People in China are mainly concerned with making money, and getting the heck out of China. As for opportunity, China's stagnant economy (crashed stock market, 2nd bubble bursting in shanghai real estate) and middle income trap status means that only Chinese citizens are preferred in any opportunities. Thus restrictive visas and anti-foreigners sentiments abound. 300%+ gdp/debt ratio and strict capital controls mean that the economy is basically one black swan away from a collapse. Rising super-power.....only people who believe that are the wumaos that Chinese government send out to perpetrate western websites. There's nothing cool, innovative, or powerful about China.
- colordrops 9y agoYour view is binary and doesn't reflect reality. I've lived in China 9 years. Despite an oppressive government, the ingenuity and perseverance of the people can't be completely contained. I absolutely do not condone the Chinese government's behavior, but that doesn't mean I will write off an entire region of over a billion people in one simplistic swoop.
- factsaresacred 9y ago> there's no such thing as 'cool' in china except dictated by the government. People in China are mainly concerned with making money, and getting the heck out of China. Lived there for 5 years, hung out with some great people and some great adventures. There are a billion people so, of course, YMMV, but perhaps you're the reason for your bad experience? I agree with the getting the heck out part though. Unless you've a good job, or another way to float above a surface of society still broken from Mao's tragic destruction, China can grind you down.
- blackbagboys 9y agoUnfortunately, while the Chinese people are fantastic, the most recent round of government repression has made it extremely difficult to live and do business there as a foreigner- and of course, the very air is frequently poisonous.
- liuw 9y agoWow, just wow. I knew about this bridge but didn't really realise it is so impressive. The view is just spectacular. I can't wait to arrange a trip there.
- shubhamjain 9y agoWhat an incredible achievement. Every time I see China's engineering marvels, or any visible statistics of its progress, I feel a slight tinge sadness as an Indian citizen. In India, such feats are few and far between and if you account the time taken to complete them, the scenario is even more depressing. Chenab bridge, touted as soon-to-be world's tallest railway bridge, for instance, was scheduled to completed by 2009. Work halted due to safety concerns, but began again an year later. The date was, then, shifted to 2015 and now, the newer estimate suggest it will be completed by 2019 [1]. I am not sure if we'll be able to abide by that too. Democracy might give people something to cheer about, but, for a country fraught with inefficiencies, it does make progress awfully slow. [1]: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/worlds-highest-railway-bridge-to-come-up-over-chenab-by-2019/taller-than-eiffel-tower/slideshow/58573206.cms http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/...
- melling 9y agoI'm an American and I understand too. We are living through the decades where America gave away its leadership in the world. We can't get anything accomplished at a reasonable price in reasonable time. For example, China built 14,000 miles of high-speed rail in about 15 years, with another 10,000 on the way. In America we still haven't built our first line. Every time the discussion comes up, it degenerates into people explaining all the places it won't work. Not to worry for India, in 50 years it will be better off than today. It might even pass the US.
- jhayward 9y ago> I'm an American and I understand too. We are living through the decades where America gave away its leadership in the world. We can't get anything accomplished at a reasonable price in reasonable time It's not that we can't get it accomplished reasonably, you'd be amazed at how fast and cheaply major projects can be developed if funding is properly structured. It's rather that we've wasted our treasure on other things. Jack Ma had an interesting comment at Davos[1] - what would the US be like if we had spent the $14 trillion we've wasted on war and wall street bailouts on infrastructure, research, and education in the Midwest? [1] http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/18/chinese-billionaire-jack-ma-says-the-us-wasted-trillions-on-warfare-instead-of-investing-in-infrastructure.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/18/chinese-billionaire-jack-ma-s...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- sebasxnco 9y ago!Woah¡ without words... It's amazing.
- MarkMc 9y agoAn engineering marvel, but most likely an economic white elephant. The New York Times recently had a more critical report on China's bridges [0] China is addicted to infrastructure projects to boost its GDP. The problem is that these projects in aggregate produce a poor economic return, so China's debt as a percentage of GDP is growing unsustainably. At some point it will be forced to have a painful adjustment to lower growth, especially for investment spending. Personally I find Larry Summers analysis pursuasive when he argues that China will most likely achieve 4% growth over next two decades [1] [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/asia/china-bridges-infrastructure.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/asia/china-bridges-... [1] http://www.nber.org/digest/mar15/w20573.html http://www.nber.org/digest/mar15/w20573.html
- bane 9y agoIt is unsustainable long-term, but it's a reasonable model to follow. Build today while the cost is cheaper, create a larger general economy and then coast for a while. Japan also spent decades boosting GDP with huge infrastructure projects. They can't sustain them anymore and in some areas are starting to dismantle some of the excess but the Japan of today is much nicer place to have a flat economy than the Japan of the 40s or 50s.
- kqr2 9y agoDoes it take into account the benefits of developing large scale engineering and construction expertise? In many ways the United States Apollo program was also a white elephant as a space program of that scale was economically unsustainable, however, it had a huge impact on accelerating pace of technology development. http://www.computerworld.com/article/2525898/app-development/nasa-s-apollo-technology-has-changed-history.html http://www.computerworld.com/article/2525898/app-development...
- Kardinal 9y agoWhat China has achieved is truly incredible. I knew about this bridge but didn't really realise it is so impressive. The view is just spectacular.
- juanitawong 9y agoThis is some thing curious about to think. Want more details. http://www.classessays.com/ http://www.classessays.com/
- blahedo 9y agoCan someone explain the statement about the length of the cables (in the section starting about 2:48) that they'd stretch from Beijing to New York if laid end to end? It seems so obviously false (there's, what, a few dozen of them, maybe a hundred?) that I assume I'm missing something.
- grue2 9y agoSuspension bridge cables are made of smaller cables. And those smaller cables are made of yet smaller cables. For example: http://regex.info/i/JEF_042406.jpg http://regex.info/i/JEF_042406.jpg That's my guess.
- blahedo 9y agoOhhh that totally makes sense. That image really illustrates the point well, too! Thanks!
- contingencies 9y agoThe Beipangjiang's twin is the Nanpangjiang, which is a fascinating tributary to the Pearl River Delta and one of the longest rivers in China by total flow length. It is followed in part by the French narrow-guage railway from Haiphong to Kunming and also spanned by some amazing bridges and these days many dams. Southwest China is really impressive topographically.
- markdown 9y ago[Cough](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/03/africa/kenya-bridge-collapse/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/03/africa/kenya-bridge-collap...) That's a beautiful bridge though.
- Cookingboy 9y agoYeah, let's be snarky, one bridge collapse during construction means the whole country cannot build a decent bridge. Some of the longest and most used suspension bridges are in China, and they've been in use for years in major cities like Shanghai. Here is a list of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, look at how many of them are in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_cable-stayed_bridge_spans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_cable-stayed_b...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- markdown 9y agoI don't need to be sold on China and their incredible achievements. Have visited, enjoyed my time there. It was meant as lighthearted snark, since the bridge collapse only just happened a few days ago. I'm sorry it didn't come across right.
- Cookingboy 9y agoYeah no problem, that makes sense, to be fair I've personally seen Chinese companies cutting corners as far as safety goes. I don't know what's more impressive, their capability to achieve super high quality at low cost or their capability to achieve unsafe quality at even lower cost...
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoThe fenghuang bridge collapse a few years ago caught my attention. Definitely corruption that took it down with 40+ workers. But I've travelled on these bridges and don't think they are unsafe. The expressway ones at least seem to be supervised much more closely.
- prawn 9y agoSeriously impressive bridge. (It's a video a few minutes long and worth watching. I rarely watch videos on news sites, but glad I watched this one.)
- sundvor 9y agoDitto; great video. Got to love such great feats of engineering.
- NaliSauce 9y agoI find it fascinating that (pressure) grouting is shown as something revolutionary and new here.
- iUsedToCode 9y agoI like how the reporter speaks Chinese. Usually it's english only, which i suppose is translated off screen for the local being interviewed. I don't watch much BBC so i don't know if that changed lately. It's a change for the better imo.
- DanBC 9y agoLots of people are saying he's from the BBC, but is he? The video is a "Lion Television / All3 Media production for JSBC" Lion Television is a UK TV production company. All3 Media are "content creators". JSBC is Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation. So, I don't know if we can say anything about the BBC from that interviewer. We can say the BBC have many foreign correspondents (although their have been drastic cuts), who spend long times in the countries they report on. When you hear reports from foreign correspondents (eg, BBC radio 4's "Letter From Our Own Correspondent") you'll hear them speaking non-English languages and providing a translation. Complaints about cuts to the foreign correspondents: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/21/bbc-foreign-correspondents-cuts https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/21/bbc-foreign-co... From Our Own Correspondent page, with many downloadable podcasts: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjlq http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjlq
- jstanley 9y agoIt seemed to me that he was interjecting with arbitrary comments, just to show off that he speaks Chinese. I didn't think it added to the video at all.
- tsukaisute 9y agoChinese speaker here. His comments were all over-the-top excited, repeating and exaggerating others' words, almost like mocking the Chinese staff (see around 2:20 mark for example.) Think Borat-speak. Seemed very strange and unfit for this otherwise good piece.
- stupidcar 9y agoThat is just how these interviews are done by the BBC. It would be the same if both participants were in the UK speaking English. I think it's perhaps because the BBC does a lot of educational material aimed, at least partially, at children and schools, and the presenters are trained to be very exaggerated and enthusiastic in their reactions. Experts like scientists and engineers can be quite placid in their delivery, and so the presenter's job is to make whatever it is they're talking about seem more "exciting". E.g. some engineering project, scientific experiment, historical fact, etc.
- zokier 9y agoThere is very little provided for the reason for building the bridge. Doing a massive construction project so that some potato farmer can carry his goods to neighboring village seems unwarranted. Is there some industry or something that can use the bridge, or maybe it has some strategic value?
- Tuna-Fish 9y agoThe purpose of all the infrastructure projects in the periphery is to tie China together, allow economic opportunities in the periphery, and promote trade, travel and migration between different parts of China. To grossly simplify it, China is a lot less of a single nation than it claims to be. Historically, it was a collection of states that were bound together into a single empire, but most places still retained local identity over the imperial one, and most Chinese dynasties failed not because external pressures were raised to insurmountable level, but rather because the thin fabric tying the states together fell apart and the empire just disintegrated. The CPC sees this, not any external threat or national level domestic challenger, as the primary threat and problem facing them in the future. To fix it, they employ a policy of trying to integrate the periphery by building infrastructure in such a way to make it easier to travel between provinces than it is to travel inside provinces, so that new economic structures arise which make the people in one province dependent on people in other provinces, and so that travel and marriage of people across the provinces would in the long term make the distinctions fade away.
- mistermann 9y agoChina bashers often talk about things like how much abject poverty or wealth inequality there still is, or their demographic problems, or malinvestment. Sure, these are problematic, but if you use a little imagination, initiatives like this maybe don't look so dumb. I think Chinese political and economic leadership is absolutely world class and may some day be viewed by historians as the best the world has ever seen, especially if you consider both the breadth and speed of their accomplishments.
- HorizonXP 9y ago
- moontear 9y agoReally impressive bridge to drive over. Our bus driver (regular travel bus) stopped on the bridge so people could take pictures. Nobody could tell us why he stopped on the bridge. We figured only afterwards that it is the worlds highest bridge we drove on.
- london888 9y agoThanks for posting this - I use the BBC site from the UK and wouldn't have seen it otherwise as it's on the .com site. Also interesting to see the comments about the reporter's Chinese.