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The China Daily is an official newspaper, and this article surprises me coming from such a source. That it is being submitted here and is being upvoted here ill

The China Daily is an official newspaper, and this article surprises me coming from such a source. That it is being submitted here and is being upvoted here illustrates how much gee-whiz value China adds to any news story, about ever so speculative a project. So one guy in his armchair has proposed an expensive, long-term project that may never happen--not least for political reasons ("cross Siberia to Bering Strait"). I guess the value of the article kindly submitted here is as a reminder that many news stories about China seem credible to readers who have never been to China, even if they are incredible to people who have been there. The Chinese saying "百聞不如一見" (hearing of something a hundred times isn't worth seeing it once) may apply here. For a long time, there were submissions here to HN about a guy in China who was going to build a pre-fab high-rise hotel building in just one day. That still hasn't happened. Predictions about the future are fun to think about--that's why I used to read science fiction stories--but we can best size up how a country is doing[1] by looking at current news and sustainable trends. (In the case of China, it is important to look at reporting from publications other than official publications of the one-party-dictatorship government of the country as a reality check.) Good luck with that high-speed train from China to America. I wonder if I will be able to ride that or ride a space elevator[2] first. [1] http://www.todayonline.com/business/chinas-property-bubble-has-burst-economists http://www.todayonline.com/business/chinas-property-bubble-h... http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/05/chinas-property-bubble-has-officially-popped-report-says/ http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/05/chinas-propert... [2] https://what-if.xkcd.com/7/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/7/

anigbrowl 13y ago
There was quite an audience here for Elon Musk's pneumatic tube transit idea as well, which was at least as off-the-wall. I don't find this particularly credible either as it doesn't really solve any major problem, but there's no arguing with the fact that China has a taste for such large-scale undertakings.
mjklin 13y ago
Everyone laughed when Beijing proposed the Qinghai-Tibet railway too. It would have to be built 1,200 miles over seasonal permafrost and the workers would have to wear special suits and breathing apparatus. It has been running since 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai–Tibet_Railway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai–Tibet_Railway
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  I don't remember laughing about this. Building a train route overland isn't really that amazing, especially considering that we know how to deal with the permafrost these days. It would be totally possible to build a line from Beijing to Seattle, or even just Fairbanks to Seattle, it just wouldn't be economically interesting.
- tokenadult 13y ago
  I wasn't laughing about that project, and I don't remember anyone else who was. A lot of people were surprised it hadn't been done sooner, as an assertion of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. The desire to reinforce the territorial claim to Tibet was why all the considerable engineering difficulties were overcome with sufficient resources to push through the project.
- tsotha 13y ago
  Not really, no. For one thing, building a rail line to Tibet makes a lot of sense, both because it helps China maintain control over Tibet and for logistics in border problems with India. The rail line in the article makes no sense. It would be incredibly expensive (particularly the tunnel), there's no strategic reason for it, people would rather fly at that distance, and freight is cheaper to ship by sea.
jpatokal 13y ago
The "prefab in a day guy" did build a 15-story hotel in two days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Sustainable_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Sustainable_Building He's now trying to build the world's tallest building with the same method, and while construction hasn't started, it's a lot less vaporware than this high-speed rail project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_%28Changsha%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_%28Changsha%29

anigbrowl 13y ago

There was quite an audience here for Elon Musk's pneumatic tube transit idea as well, which was at least as off-the-wall. I don't find this particularly credible either as it doesn't really solve any major problem, but there's no arguing with the fact that China has a taste for such large-scale undertakings.

mjklin 13y ago

Everyone laughed when Beijing proposed the Qinghai-Tibet railway too. It would have to be built 1,200 miles over seasonal permafrost and the workers would have to wear special suits and breathing apparatus. It has been running since 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai–Tibet_Railway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai–Tibet_Railway

seanmcdirmid 13y ago
I don't remember laughing about this. Building a train route overland isn't really that amazing, especially considering that we know how to deal with the permafrost these days. It would be totally possible to build a line from Beijing to Seattle, or even just Fairbanks to Seattle, it just wouldn't be economically interesting.
tokenadult 13y ago
I wasn't laughing about that project, and I don't remember anyone else who was. A lot of people were surprised it hadn't been done sooner, as an assertion of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. The desire to reinforce the territorial claim to Tibet was why all the considerable engineering difficulties were overcome with sufficient resources to push through the project.
tsotha 13y ago
Not really, no. For one thing, building a rail line to Tibet makes a lot of sense, both because it helps China maintain control over Tibet and for logistics in border problems with India. The rail line in the article makes no sense. It would be incredibly expensive (particularly the tunnel), there's no strategic reason for it, people would rather fly at that distance, and freight is cheaper to ship by sea.

jpatokal 13y ago

The "prefab in a day guy" did build a 15-story hotel in two days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Sustainable_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Sustainable_Building He's now trying to build the world's tallest building with the same method, and while construction hasn't started, it's a lot less vaporware than this high-speed rail project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_%28Changsha%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_%28Changsha%29