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"Presumably a society run by engineers will at least not neglect to invest in infrastructure like we do." Are you considering all of China? I'm pretty sure the

by devmonk 16y ago

"Presumably a society run by engineers will at least not neglect to invest in infrastructure like we do." Are you considering all of China? I'm pretty sure the U.S. overall infrastructure is still better than theirs. They wouldn't build up anything that wouldn't profit the state. Maybe eventually that will change.

c1sc0 16y ago
Maybe not now but it certainly will be in a few years for the simple reason that they rebuild everything from scratch and can leapfrog technologies. China doesn't care about being backwards-compatible: they'll just tear down & rebuild whole districts every few years. And they still have the cheap labour to do it at a far faster pace than any public infrastructure project in the western world.
- gbog 16y ago
  Yes, I second that (living in China, they redo ring roads overnight here). I also heard that in China in one year they currently build more kilometers of bridges than in US they build kilometers of highways. (No link to back that, just a hearsay.)
  - mrtron 16y ago
    Does China have have many American style highways? When I visited Beijing and area - the multilane roads weren't connected with overpasses and ramps like the American system. This resulted in incredibly slow traffic. Also results in things like the 100km+ traffic jam they had this summer. Their subway system in Beijing was very large and well connected but was still overcrowded to the point of being unusable during rush hour. Such a large population - must be an engineers dream.
    - skowmunk 16y ago
      Such a large population - must be an engineers dream. Love those words. I think the same. All those deficiencies in India and China, they are great technical and business opportunities to be tapped. Just massive opportunities that will keep growing at a fast clip for decades to come. Now, now, don't get me wrong guys. There is nothing wrong with helping people and making money in the process. That's also the sustainable way to make lives better.
    - gbog 16y ago
      I had the same feeling when visiting New-York. Their highways have overpasses. What you saw in Beijing is probably not highways, it is just the normal 8-lanes roads that squares the city. Traffic is a mess in the city, for sure. I heard they sell 1000 new cars everyday in Beijing, so it is not an easy task to dissolve the jam. They have a law forbidding every car one day per week, based on your plate number, so wealthy people buy two, and less wealthy use public transport or bike once a week at least.
    - c1sc0 16y ago
      I agree that traffic in Beijing is a mess. My impression was that Shanghai has slightly better transportation infrastructure, both road & rail.
ww520 16y ago
It might be something unique in time of history. I read somewhere that people in China worry about the rising labor cost ten and twenty years down the road, and they are rushing to build all kinds of infrastructure now when it's cheap. For the high speed rail projects, they are advocating to speed up the spending now since the projection showing they can't afford it in the future.

by devmonk 16y ago

c1sc0 16y ago

Maybe not now but it certainly will be in a few years for the simple reason that they rebuild everything from scratch and can leapfrog technologies. China doesn't care about being backwards-compatible: they'll just tear down & rebuild whole districts every few years. And they still have the cheap labour to do it at a far faster pace than any public infrastructure project in the western world.

gbog 16y ago
Yes, I second that (living in China, they redo ring roads overnight here). I also heard that in China in one year they currently build more kilometers of bridges than in US they build kilometers of highways. (No link to back that, just a hearsay.)
- mrtron 16y ago
  Does China have have many American style highways? When I visited Beijing and area - the multilane roads weren't connected with overpasses and ramps like the American system. This resulted in incredibly slow traffic. Also results in things like the 100km+ traffic jam they had this summer. Their subway system in Beijing was very large and well connected but was still overcrowded to the point of being unusable during rush hour. Such a large population - must be an engineers dream.
  - skowmunk 16y ago
    Such a large population - must be an engineers dream. Love those words. I think the same. All those deficiencies in India and China, they are great technical and business opportunities to be tapped. Just massive opportunities that will keep growing at a fast clip for decades to come. Now, now, don't get me wrong guys. There is nothing wrong with helping people and making money in the process. That's also the sustainable way to make lives better.
  - gbog 16y ago
    I had the same feeling when visiting New-York. Their highways have overpasses. What you saw in Beijing is probably not highways, it is just the normal 8-lanes roads that squares the city. Traffic is a mess in the city, for sure. I heard they sell 1000 new cars everyday in Beijing, so it is not an easy task to dissolve the jam. They have a law forbidding every car one day per week, based on your plate number, so wealthy people buy two, and less wealthy use public transport or bike once a week at least.
  - c1sc0 16y ago
    I agree that traffic in Beijing is a mess. My impression was that Shanghai has slightly better transportation infrastructure, both road & rail.

ww520 16y ago

It might be something unique in time of history. I read somewhere that people in China worry about the rising labor cost ten and twenty years down the road, and they are rushing to build all kinds of infrastructure now when it's cheap. For the high speed rail projects, they are advocating to speed up the spending now since the projection showing they can't afford it in the future.