The contract for the Chinese mainland's first undersea tunnel
project has been finalized, and construction work will kick off
soon.
The 9-kilometer tunnel connects Xiamen city in?Fujian
Province?to its outlying district of Xiang'an. Six
kilometers of the project are undersea. The total investment is
expected to be 3.2 billion yuan (US$395 million), the most
expensive infrastructural project in Xiamen.
The Xiamen-Xiang'an tunnel is not only the first undersea tunnel
in Chinese mainland. It is also the first tunnel designed entirely
by Chinese engineers.
The tunnel is scheduled to open before 2009. By then, it will
take just 15 minutes to travel from Xiamen city to Xiang'an.
(CRI August 14, 2005)