The Chinese may be on their way to setting a new world record...for a railway construction job in the Fujian Province in Southern China.
On the 19th of January 2018 something quite remarkable happened when 1,500 workers were tasked with constructing a railway designed to connect the city of Longyan to three other pre-existing railways.
It was successfully completed in nine hours! From the evening of the 19th of January to the early hours of the 20th the teams worked through the night - showing off Chinese efficiency in a big way.
The all-nighter also included the installation of traffic signals and monitoring equipment.
Words may do this incredible feat of engineering a disservice. Look at this video to see the sheer spectacle of it:
The newly built Nanlong Railway will connect to Ganlong, Ganruilong, and Zhanglong railways. It is to become the main railway that links south-east China with Central China, reports Xinhua news.
Seven teams, working simultaneously, utilized the strength of 23 diggers and 7 trains to start the project which is expected to be completed at the end of 2018. If they work with this kind of stamina the project deadline will be achieved.
Chinese New Year
China depends on trains. On Friday 16th February 2018 China will observe their New Year. It is a time that signals travel, the Chunyun travel period or Spring Festival. People migrate to be present at the festival and to reunite with family in their original homelands. Chunyun will see 3 billion trips made between January 13th and February 21st. Of these, 300 million will be taken by train.
The China Railway Corporation’s website will be inundated, processing ticket sales, leading up to this period.
Zhu Jian Sheng, the associate director of the Institute of Computing Technologies at China Academy of Railway Science says:
“The average page views for 12,306 (the website) is 55.67 billion views per day and 81.34 billion views per day during the peak period. The highest clicks per hour is 5.93 billion with an average of 1.648 million clicks per second.”
The corporation will sell 10 to 15 million tickets a day on the lead up to Chunyun. Engineers are naturally on standby to ensure the efficiency of transportation and to repair any faults that may manifest during the 40-day holiday.
We wish all those celebrating the Chinese New Year a happy season and successful year ahead.
Works Cited
Tomarnstein. “China Railway Site Sees 5.93 Billion Clicks Per Hour as Busiest Travel Season Starts.” Tomarnstein, The Beijinger, 17 Jan. 2018, www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2018/01/18/china-railway-site-sees-593-billion-clicks-hour-busiest-travel-season-starts.
彭莹 . “Railway Project Involving 1,500 Workers Completed in Less than 9 Hours.” Railway Project Involving 1,500 Workers Completed in Less than 9 Hours - Xinhua | English.news.cn, www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/23/c_136917236_2.htm.
