China is in the midst of a construction spree
unparalleled in human history. Over the course of just 40 years, the Chinese will be adding
a layer of infrastructure that will rival what we in the United States have built in
our entire past. These are the Megaprojects that will lift
China into the future. China wants to make its capital, Beijing,
the center of the world’s largest supercity, by merging three provinces into one continuous
megalopolis of 130 million people. That’s six times the population of New York. The region is called Jing-Jin-Ji. It will
tie together the cities in the three provinces along the Bohai Bay rim using advanced communications
networks, new high-speed rail and subway lines, and better highways. Reports are that Beijing’s focus will be
culture and technology, Tianjin will become a research base for manufacturing, and Hebei
will be the new home of many of the federal bureaucracy jobs that will be relocated from
the capital. The project has the full backing of President
Xi Jinping to catch the area up to China’s more economically prosperous regions, like
what Shanghai and Nanjing have got going on in the Yangtze River Delta. Covering roughly the total land area of the
US state of Kansas, Jing-Jin-Ji will be unlike anything seen before in the history of mankind. And even though it’s still a work in progress
-- part of a long-term vision -- that’s not stopping people from moving into areas
that are completely unready for them. “The services are bad,” says a salesman who commutes
a total of five hours a day on congested roads. His 6-year-old child has more than 65 kids
in his class. They live in Yanjiao, one of the many tower-filled
suburbs that are sprouting up all across Jing-Jin-Ji. Yanjiao has about ¾ of a million residents,
but just two very small parks and no bus terminals. Why is this the case? Because corruption is perceived as rampant
at the local level in China, the central government doesn’t allow cities to keep the little
tax revenues they do collect. So communities like Yanjiao have no way to pay for desperately-needed
schools, roads or enough buses to adequately serve their citizens. The most vital piece of infrastructure that
will help fix a lot of these problems is still being built, Jing-Jin-Ji’s high speed rail
network. With trains that can hit 185 miles per hour, urban areas that were previously
confined by the 60 miles per hour speeds of a car or subway or train, can now greatly
expand. All those people filling the megacities in
the North have a shortage of the single most necessary resource for life: water. To solve
that problem, the Chinese will soon be moving 44.8 billion cubic meters of fresh water each
year from the wetter South to the dryer North. There will be three canals in the project,
a 716 mile-long Eastern Canal that will begin at the Yangtze River and snake uphill, with
the help of more than 20 pumping stations, to reservoirs in Tianjin. Route two will flow downhill from the Danjiangkou
Reservoir on the Han river 785 miles across the North China Plain to Beijing. And the third route is the Big Western Line.
It’s still in its planning phase, but it will divert water from the rivers flowing
into the Yangtze, sending it to the Yellow River instead. The Central Government has rammed this project
through despite many concerns over pollution and the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands
of villagers. It’s also late and over budget due to the soaring costs of building bridges
and tunnels for the canals to cross the many rivers and highways in its way. Then there
are the fears that diverting water from the Yangtze River could cause the world’s third-longest
river to run low, devastating those whose livelihoods depend on it. One proposed solution to this problem is to
give the Yangtze more water by redirecting rivers in southwestern China. But this would
affect India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, potentially causing
an international crisis. For the immediate future though, the South-to-North
water Transfer Project is a done deal. Following the example of the American West in the previous
century, China has completely reshaped its environment using dams and canals, allowing
for the arid North to support tens of millions more residents than it otherwise could. As the world’s most populous country, it
makes sense China would have the world’s busiest airport, and when the Beijing Daxing
International Airport opens in 2018, it will. With a maximum capacity of 130 million passengers
a year, it will be significantly busier than the world’s current busiest airport [Atlanta’s
Hartsfield-Jackson]. To make this work, Beijing-Daxing’s main
terminal will sprawl over 7.5-million square-feet. It’s unique starfish design was created
by Zaha Hadid Architects to “provide an exceptional passenger experience with minimal
walking and increased connectivity." The new Mega-Airport could have as many as
nine runways: eight for civilian use and one for the military, and will cover more than
6,600 acres in southern Daxing along its border with Hebei province. Construction will cost around $13 billion,
and will include a dedicated high speed rail line to connect the airport to the rest of
Beijing’s transportation system. Beijing’s existing Capital International
Airport is already running well over-capacity and has become the second busiest in the world
even though it just opened in 2008. So to ease congestion, it will stay open, providing
the Jing-Jin-Ji supercity with two mega-airports. But it’s not just passenger congestion that
makes it hard to fly in China. Some analysts say the root of the problem is that the military
controls 80% of the airspace, which forces civilian aircraft to operate in narrow corridors,
slowing them down. That’s why flight delays are rampant throughout the country. But that’s an issue China can and will fix,
because it knows that while the 20th century was the century of the automobile, the 21st
will be dominated by the airplane, especially once faster, more efficient aircraft are introduced,
making it even easier and cheaper to get around our increasingly interconnected planet. The Chinese aren’t just flying in record
numbers, they’re falling in love all over again with the preferred method of travel
in the 20th century, as hundreds of millions of Chinese acquire middle class status and
the extra income to afford cars. This is presenting a relatively new challenge: heavy congestion
on their motorways. So to tackle this problem, China has set itself apart from the rest of
the world by embracing high speed rail at a breakneck pace. It’s goal to build a system
with more than 35,000 kilometers of track is now more than half complete, making it
one of the most expensive megaprojects in history. The other reason behind this plan is to allow
people to commute to work from much farther distances than they could than if they had
to drive, making high speed rail the key to urbanization. And because China has as much
high speed rail as every other country combined, it will have more and more of the world’s
largest cities. In fact, of the top 10 urban areas on Earth
with more than 20 million people, three of them are in China—and those cities are growing
so fast that two of the three weren’t in the top 10 last year. The explosion in high speed rail in China
is especially mind-blowing when you consider that it was first introduced there in 2007,
that’s less than a decade ago. Since then, daily ridership has grown from 237,000 to
over 2.5 million. To accommodate all those passengers, it’s
Railway Ministry has swelled, and now has the same number of employees as there are
civilians working for the entire United States government. China got to this point under the heavy-handed
leadership of Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun, or “Great Leap Liu,” who pushed his patriotic
workers in shifts around the clock to plan and build rail lines as fast as possible.
He famously said, “to achieve a great leap, a generation must be sacrificed.” Liu meant
his workers, but when a poorly designed signaling system caused a dramatic crash on a viaduct
high above a valley in 2011, it was clear that some of the first generation of passengers
would be sacrificed as well. News anchor: “China’s railway system has
been plagued with problems including corruption and quality concerns. Authorities have come
under fire for the way they’ve handled the accident, especially when they buried several
carriages before carrying out an investigation.” Bryce: But, despite the 40 deaths - and more
than 200 injuries - in the Wenzhou train collision, the attempts of the government to cover the
disaster up, and Great Leap Liu’s subsequent fall from grace, the high speed rail boom
in China has roared on and the system is now considered to be among the safest modes of
transportation in the entire world. It also leads the globe in annual ridership,
has the longest single service at 2,400 km from Harbin to Wuhan and has the fastest commercially
operated train with peak speeds of 430 km/h. Now, having successfully linked up much of
its own country with high speed rail, China aims to do the same for the rest of the world.
It is building systems in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and South America, and is bidding on projects
in Russia, Brazil, Myanmar, and the United States. Now for the most dangerous project on the
agenda. The world’s longest underwater tunnel will connect the cities of Dalian and Yantai
across the Bohai Sea, passing through two deadly earthquake fault zones. At 76 miles
long it will be longer than the current first and second-ranked underwater tunnels combined,
and at a cost of $42 billion, it will be extremely expensive. But the Chinese calculate that
it will be worth it. For one, it will slash the eight hour drive
between the two cities to under two hours. It will also connect China’s isolated northern
rustbelt with its wealthy east coast, adding an additional $3.7 billion to the economy
each year. The experience could also establish the Chinese
as the preeminent submarine diggers in the world, and would be a serious practice run
for far more ambitious potential future Mega-MEGA-projects like connecting China to South Korea, or even
Russia to the United States across the Bering Strait--yes, that has actually been proposed. This isn’t the first underwater tunnel project
for Chinese engineers, either, who already gained some experience by completing the 3.8
mile-long Jiaozhou Bay Tunnel in 2011. But while the Bohai Sea is roughly the same depth
as Jiaozhou Bay, the tunnel underneath it will be 20 times longer. When it comes to construction, if they’re
lucky, the Chinese will encounter only soft seabed, allowing them to use Tunnel-Boring
Machines the whole way. But if they run into harder rock, they’re going to have to use
the “drill-and-blast” method embraced by the Japanese during construction of the
Seikhan Tunnel. Using tons of dynamite hundreds of feet underwater is dangerous business,
and it resulted in the unfortunate deaths of four workers over the course of that project,
and maaaany accidental leaks. Reporter: “In 1976 the project hit its biggest
crisis when 80 tons of seawater a minute began leaking in. 1.5 km of tunnel flooded. It took
five months to get back on track.” Bryce: The Bohai Tunnel will also have to
withstand magnitude 8.0 earthquakes. In 1976, the deadliest earthquake in modern history
-- a 7.8 -- killed a record 650,000 people in Tangshan and surrounding areas. In 1969
a quake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale shook the Bohai Bay itself. And there doesn’t
seem to be much the engineers can even do about that threat besides simply reinforcing
the strength of the tunnel walls. Of course, they could simply not bore a long hole under
a deep bay through two fault zones, but that doesn’t really seem to be an option at this
point. Because officials throughout China are under
enormous pressure to hit GDP economic growth targets, and there aren’t many other options
that could provide anywhere near as much economic benefit as the Bohai Tunnel, which should
break ground sometime in 2016. By now you’re seeing the trend here: the
world’s biggest city, the world’s longest canal, biggest airport, longest high speed
rail network and underwater tunnel. So the fact that China is building the world’s
largest Wind Power Farm too shouldn’t surprise you. The Gansu Wind Farm Project will produce
20 Gigawatts of power by 2020, and will cost nearly $20 billion to build. Turbines are
going up at the staggering rate of 35 per day across the three areas that make up the
power base. In 2012, Gansu’s capacity surpassed the total wind-generated-electricity produced
by all of the United Kingdom, and it’s just the largest of six mega-wind farms currently
under construction throughout China. But China isn’t embracing wind just to reduce
its carbon emissions, it’s doing everything it can to simply keep the lights on. Some
parts of the country with booming middle class populations suffer persistent electricity
shortages because, just like us, people want refrigerators, dishwashers, washer and dryers,
and computers in their homes, but there’s only so much energy to go around. So China’s State Council is pushing for
an across-the-board renewable strategy to reduce its dependence on oil, coal and gas,
the finite resources of the 20th century whose extraction and consumption are subject to
constant geopolitical tensions. Since 2013, China has led the world in renewable
energy production, with a total capacity of 378 installed Gigawatts, coming from projects
as wide-ranging as Gansu to hydroelectric power plants like the Three Gorges Dam, which
spans the Yangtze River and is the world’s largest power station of any kind. In just
the last 10 years, China has increased its solar panel production 100-fold to become
the world’s leading manufacturer of the technology. With China now pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere
than the number two and three emitting countries - the US and India - combined, it’s vital
for the future of the planet that it continues using MegaProjects to create a lot more Megawatts
of clean, green power. Another answer is nuclear power, which is
much less controversial in China because of its prodigious demand for electricity--and
the inability of its people to mount any real challenges to the government’s plans. Mainland China currently has 31 nuclear power
reactors in operation, and another 24 under construction. Compare this to the United States,
which has 99 commercial reactors overall, supplying about 20% of its electricity needs.
However, the US currently has plans to build just five more reactors--as it’s instead
choosing to embrace natural gas, wind and solar power. Even France -- who leads the world by generating
3/4 of its electricity from nuclear -- is moving away from the technology, and will
likely close nearly half its nuclear power plants in the next decade. The Fukushima accident in Japan, after the
devastating earthquake there, also accelerated the world’s break up with nuclear power,
even causing China to briefly suspend new projects. But while the rest of the world
turns its back on nuclear energy, China is doing the opposite, more than quadrupling
its nuclear capacity by 2030. The marquee project is the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant
in Shandong province, which will eventually house eight AP1000 Westinghouse pressurized
water reactors for a total capacity of 8,800 MegaWatts--four times more power than is generated
by the Hoover Dam, a power station that provides electricity for 8 million people in the American
Southwest. And when you factor in that the average home in China uses a fraction of what
an American home uses, the Haiyang plant will end up producing enough electricity for tens
of millions of people. But the $13 billion project is only the most
powerful of the 13 different nuclear power plants currently under construction across
China--nine of which will have a maximum capacity of more than 6,000 MW. Most are near large cities where power is
needed most, but this strategy raises concerns that if there were an accident, tens of millions
of residents could be exposed to dangerous radiation. The neighboring Guangdong and Ling Ao nuclear
power plants have 28 million people within a 75-kilometer radius, including Hong Kong.
That’s many more than the 8 million who live within 75-kilometers of the San Onofre
nuclear generation station in Southern California, but the decision was taken in 2013 to shut
the California plant down after numerous safety concerns became known to the public--highlighting
the opposite directions the two nations are heading in when it comes to nuclear power. The other issue China must deal with is how
to dispose the many tons of radioactive waste it will be generating, which is always a contentious
issue because no one wants that in their backyard. The current plan is for construction to commence
in 2041 on a high level waste repository site in the Gobi Desert. On the whole, the danger of a costly nuclear
accident that China would pay for in both blood and treasure is fairly significant,
but Beijing is apparently willing to live with that risk, judging by its unrestricted
embrace of nuclear power. But these are tough choices, and it’s important to keep in mind
that in the age of climate change and ecological interconnectivity, nuclear power is still
an infinitely cleaner alternative to burning coal. The final megaproject featured in our series
perfectly highlights both China’s ongoing struggle to maintain its unprecedented growth,
and the unbelievable ambition that’s fueling its rise. A constant challenge for most big cities is
that there’s only so much land to build on. For Hong Kong and Shenzhen - two neighboring
metropolises with a total population of nearly 20 million - the boundary it’s running into
is water. Specifically, the Pearl River Delta, which separates the uber-populated eastern
corridor from the far lesser populated cities of Macau and Zhuhai on its western shore. Today, to get to Macau (Ma-Cow) after landing
at Hong Kong International airport, you are faced with either a four hour drive around
the mouth of the delta, or a long ferry ride through frequently rough waters. But that’s about to change, thanks to a
$17 billion six-lane, multi-part bridge that will cut the trip down to a 45 minute drive. It is an incredibly complex project, and includes
cost and construction sharing agreements between mainland China and its special administrative
regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Inspired by both the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
in the US and the Øresund Bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau
bridge will not only have to withstand typhoons, but to avoid cutting off one of the world’s
busiest shipping routes into Hong Kong and its unusually deep natural harbor it will
plunge underwater as a tunnel. And at 28km, its longest stretch will be as if 15 Golden
Gate bridges were lined up end-to-end-to-end-to-end. And that’s not even the craziest part. Because
Shenzhen doesn’t want to be left out, it too will build a megabridge across the delta
just a few miles to the north. Basically, the region is booming so fast,
and competition to tap into the cheaper land and labor available on the western side is
so great, that Shenzhen and Hong Kong have both committed to building multi-billion dollar
megabridges, and will essentially race to see who finishes theirs first. As you can see from a close look at the map,
cities with populations totaling more than 40 million people surrounding the delta, thus
revealing the master plan: to lay the foundation for China’s second megalopolis, an urban
area that could eventually exceed 100 million residents. We started this video with Jing-Jin-Ji, and
we’re ending it with what I’m calling Hong-Guang-Zhong. Two megalopolises, each
serving as perfect bookends to our story of China, a country that is counting on infrastructure
megaprojects like those we’re profiled to serve as the foundation for its rapid urbanization.
But how well it manages that urbanization will largely define whether it continues its
ambitious rise for the rest of the 21st century. For TDC, I’m Bryce Plank. This has been
another Daily Conversation original multi-part documentary. If you found the topic of China’s
addiction to megaprojects as fascinating as I do, hit that like button and share it with
your friends and followers, it really helps me out! If you made it here to the end of
this video, thank you so much for watching! Click on the on-screen annotations to enjoy
the other mini-documentaries I’ve made like the future megaprojects in the rest of the
world, the most interesting energy sources of the future, the history of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, or my take on the immigration history of the United States of America.
In addition to these mentioned projects, china is in a skyscraper boom unprecedented in history (except maybe dubai before 2008). In early 2016, the shanghai tower was finished but a skyscraper in wuhan will be even higher (by like 100m or 300ft). There's also a 1900 ft tall pingan international financial center recently topped out in shenzen. Did I mention that hong kong wants to expand its airport? And lastly, macau is building 4 big casino resorts on the cotai strip (china's version of the las vegas strip).
Honestly i dont love their plans with a mega city, where you concentrate the federal bureaucracy jobs in one place.(its very communistic thinking though)
Those bureaucrats will live in the own little bubble of reality cut off from the rest of society. That cant be a good thing.
and who says there cant be created efficient tech companies in Heibei. Having to concentrate the different areas of society like this instead of letting it settle naturally will do more harm than good i believe.
Imagine if you did the same in the US. Silicon Valley would never have existed.