During the Spring Festival this year, the return ferry ticket to Hainan is once again hard to find.
A tourist who had just grabbed a return bus ticket with ** found that the departure time was already ...... on March 3
In summary, this tourist may not only have to take various vacations this year, but he will not even be able to keep his job.
Some people jokingly say that Hainan is a "place where you can't go back when you come".
This has once again sparked a topic that has been discussed for decades: why can't Hainan and Guangdong's Qiongzhou Strait build a cross-sea bridge?
In fact, there are residents at both ends of the other two straits who have similar questions, and they all hope that a cross-sea passage will be built as soon as possible.
There are three major straits in China, namely the Qiongzhou Strait, the Bohai Strait and the Taiwan Strait, all of which are very close to the map and are too difficult to travel back and forth.
So, since we are known as the "infrastructure madman", it is not a problem to build bridges and open roads, but why have these straits not built cross-sea passages so far?
Let's break it down one by one.
First of all, let's talk about the Qiongzhou Strait, which everyone is currently concerned about.
Since Hainan is an island far from the mainland, it is basically by air and sea to and from Hainan.
Air transportation is to take an airplane, which is fast and convenient, but the cost is too high and the capacity is limited; Sea freight is to take a cross-sea ferry, whether you are an individual, or any vehicle, even a train, you can take a boat to and from Hainan.
Transport vehicle ferry Qiongzhou Strait Ro-Ro passenger ship "Yuehai Railway No. 3".
The question is, the narrowest part of the Qiongzhou Strait is less than 20 kilometers, and the widest part is less than 40 kilometers, so why not build a cross-sea bridge?
This will not only increase Hainan's transportation capacity, but also speed up Hainan's economic construction.
In fact, as early as the 90s of the last century, China has demonstrated the Qiongzhou Strait cross-sea bridge project.
In 2010, Hainan and Guangdong even once jointly applied to the state for the establishment of the cross-sea bridge, which is planned to be opened to traffic within ten years, and then driving across the Qiongzhou Strait will greatly shorten the time to cross the sea.
Then, there is no ...... then
The official explanation is that "the Qiongzhou Strait has deep water, strong winds, high waves, rapid currents, complex geological structures, high intensity, and high difficulty in navigation".
Map of the Qiongzhou Strait.
Indeed, although the Qiongzhou Strait is not the widest, the average depth of the seabed is more than 80 meters, and the deepest depth is nearly 120 meters; At the same time, the Qiongzhou Strait is often hit by typhoons, and the average number of days with winds above level 6 per year is about 170, of which 15 are with winds above level 85 days, maximum winds above 12 between July and September.
Of course, the technical difficulty is the direct cause of the difficult birth of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge, but the more important thing is how to calculate this "economic account".
In the 90s of the 20th century, when the relevant departments made the budget for the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge, it was nearly 150 billion, and now considering factors such as inflation and material and labor costs, it is conservatively expected that it will not be less than 200 billion.
So, who will pay for it?
Theoretically, Hainan must have an unshirkable responsibility to determine who benefits the most and who will come out.
Schematic diagram of the three routes of the cross-sea passage of the Qiongzhou Strait.
But until last year, Hainan's GDP was only 7551200 million yuan, less than the size of a city in Guangdong, ranking fourth from the bottom among the 31 provinces in the mainland.
What's more, Hainan's fiscal expenditure last year was more than 220 billion yuan, far exceeding its fiscal revenue.
Although the other end of the bridge is in Guangdong, people are not bad for money, and last year's GDP reached 1357 trillion yuan, the first in the country.
It's just that Guangdong is not active in building the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge, because Hainan cannot complement Guangdong in terms of industry and resources.
Therefore, if Guangdong wants to pay for the bridge, it is not cost-effective.
And what if the state finances?
There are two accounts, a political account and an economic account.
Hainan's geographical location is definitely important, and the country put forward a blueprint for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port in 2018, to build Hainan Island into a heavyweight free trade port at home and abroad.
Overlooking Haikou Xinhai Ro-Ro Terminal Passenger Integrated Hub Station **Haikou**.
But at present, the time is not ripe for the construction of a cross-sea bridge in the Qiongzhou Strait, the reason is that it has little effect on Guangdong on the other side, and Hainan's own transportation capacity is not urgently needed to build a bridge in normal times.
According to the data, in 2023, Hainan announced that the number of vehicles entering and leaving Hainan by the Qiongzhou Strait ferry will be 5.35 million, of which 1 million vehicles will enter and exit during the Spring Festival, accounting for 19% of the total.
This shows that the dense cross-sea traffic is mainly concentrated around the Spring Festival, and the normal capacity can basically meet the normal demand.
What's more, the Qiongzhou Strait is actually very busy.
Countless fishing boats, ferries, cargo ships, and passenger rollers shuttle back and forth in the north-south direction; There are 10,000-ton oil tankers and various container ships to pass in the east-west direction; On weekdays, there are also sea ** ships passing and training here.
At present, it is a sea route connecting Hainan and Guangdong.
Counting the economic accounts, the 200 billion budget of the aforementioned cross-sea bridge is only an estimate, and the actual cost must far exceed this figure.
According to the budget of 150 billion yuan that year, it has been calculated that after the completion of the cross-sea bridge, the cost will be at least 100 years ......This input-output ratio is difficult to accept, and it is also one of the important factors that the final plan has been shelved.
Therefore, in the short term, it is difficult to realize the desire to build a bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait.
It can only be said that it will look at the development of Hainan free trade port in a few more years.
Whether we can make the economy improve faster, at least we can sit down and discuss the plan of the sea-crossing bridge.
The people of Hainan may be a little disappointed, but the people of Dalian and Yantai are eagerly looking forward to the official start of the Bohai Strait cross-sea passage project.
The Bohai Sea, known as "Canghai" in ancient times, is the northernmost inland sea in China.
The Bohai Sea is about 346 kilometers wide from east to west, about 550 kilometers long from north to south, with a total sea area of about 80,000 square kilometers, an average depth of 18 meters, and a maximum water depth of about 86 meters.
The Bohai Sea is shaped like the English letter "C" and is adjacent to Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin and Shandong provinces and one city on three sides.
Among them, the fjord between Laotieshan and Shandong Peninsula at the southern end of Dalian City is called the Bohai Strait, and the shortest distance between the two ends of the strait is about 105 kilometers.
The Bohai Strait, which lies between the two peninsulas, is not only a necessary sea area for entering the Bohai Sea from the open sea, but also an important sea passage for land transportation between the north and the south.
The distance between the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula is only more than 100 kilometers, but from Yantai in Shandong to Dalian, Liaoning, the high-speed mileage is about 1,400 kilometers and takes about 15 hours; Even if you take the high-speed rail, it will take at least 10 hours because you need to transit through Tianjin; By Yanda Railway Ferry, the sea journey takes 6-8 hours.
Map of the Bohai Strait.
However, if the Bohai Bay cross-sea passage is completed, the whole journey can be shortened to about one hour.
Historically, countless people with lofty ideals have envisioned the construction of the Bohai Strait cross-sea passage to turn the moat into a thoroughfare.
It was not until 1992 that this dream was finally put on the construction agenda with the needs of economic and social development.
At that time, the former State Planning Commission led relevant departments and Shandong, Liaoning and other provinces and municipalities to jointly set up a research group on the cross-sea passage of the Bohai Strait
The first step is to build a railway ferry from Yantai to Dalian to realize the "soft connection" between the two peninsulas;After more than 10 years of discussion, on November 6, 2006, the Yanda Railway Ferry was finally put into trial operation.The second step is to build a test project from Penglai to Long Island, and use small channels to drive large channels;
The third step is to build a cross-sea bridge or undersea tunnel from Penglai to Lushun to complete the cross-sea passage of the Bohai Strait.
The "China Railway Bohai No. 2" ferry in the Yanda Railway Ferry Project.
By the way, in fact, in the entire Bohai Bay, several Shandong provinces are the most active in the construction of the Bohai Sea channel.
On the one hand, Liaoning's economy has always been relatively tight, and hundreds of billions of construction funds are not a small amount; On the other hand, Liaoning has Jinzhou, Yingkou and Dalian and other sea passages.
The northern grain and southern transportation go from Jinzhou Port, the oil goes from Yingkou Port, Dalian is an international hub, and there is no shortage of a cross-strait passage at all.
Shandong is different, because there are many natural harbors, and the cargo throughput of Shandong Port Group (including all ports in Shandong) in 2023 will reach 1.7 billion tons and 40 million TEUs of containers, ranking first in the world.
Obviously, if the Bohai Strait cross-sea passage can connect the northeast, the Shandong port group will naturally have more room for development.
Therefore, the most critical step in the cross-sea passage of the Bohai Strait - the construction of the Pengchang (Penglai to Changdao) cross-sea test section is to choose the two places of Shandong across the sea to carry out.
Shandong Changdao. This is not only to solve the problem of long-term inconvenient transportation on Long Island, but also because the distance between the long sea section is only 75 kilometers, the maximum water depth of about 40 meters, moderate difficulty, the investment amount is only about 5 billion yuan, is the ideal choice for cross-sea channel test (test funds, naturally Shandong out of the head).
There are two engineering schemes: bridges and tunnels, and most experts prefer to build undersea tunnels.
In particular, China already has experience in the construction of super projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Undersea Tunnel, the Qingdao Undersea Tunnel, and the Shenzhong Undersea Tunnel.
At present, the Bohai Strait cross-sea passage has been included in the "Outline for the Cooperation and Development of the Bohai Rim Region", the "13th Five-Year Plan" of Shandong Province, the "Medium and Long-term Development Plan for the Comprehensive Transportation Network of Shandong Province (2018-2035)", and the major project of new and old kinetic energy conversion in Shandong Province.
On October 29, 2021, the construction of the Bohai Strait Cross-Sea Corridor has been officially included in the national "14th Five-Year Plan".
Schematic diagram of the cross-sea passage of the Bohai Strait.
In August 2022 and August 2023, the official issued a notice on the survey operation of the construction project of the Bohai Strait cross-sea channel, indicating that the project is being planned and designed in an orderly manner.
Once China has completed the exploration work and found the safest path, the next thing to do is only to connect the two ports, and the second phase of the plan can be regarded as a phased progress.
If all goes well, the construction of the Pengchang Undersea Tunnel is expected to start within two years, and the construction of the Bohai Strait cross-sea passage will also begin.
Shandong Penglai scenery.
According to the plan, the Bohai Strait cross-sea passage from Penglai in Shandong Province through the Changshan Islands to Lushun in Liaoning Province, in the form of cross-sea bridges, undersea tunnels or bridges and tunnels, the construction of a direct fast passage across the Bohai Strait, so as to turn the C-shaped traffic of the Bohai Bay into a traffic that extends in all directions, and become the main traffic artery running through the north and south of our country.
At that time, the railway transportation mileage from Shandong to Northeast China can be shortened by more than 1,800 kilometers, and the highway can be shortened by 1,200 kilometers, thereby driving the rapid development of surrounding economic industries and making the Bohai Rim region truly one.
After the opening of the Bohai Strait cross-sea channel, the total length is about 125 kilometers, and the estimated total investment exceeds 300 billion yuan, which may become the world's longest cross-sea channel project.
Compared with the Qiongzhou Strait and the Bohai Strait, which only meet the expectations of neighboring provinces, there is another strait cross-sea project that all Chinese are looking forward to, which is the Taiwan Strait cross-sea passage.
Although the Taiwan issue is still unresolved, the Taiwan Strait cross-sea passage connecting Fujian and Taiwan has been discussed for many years.
The Taiwan Strait is located on the continental shelf of the East China Sea, with undulating terrain and an average water depth of about 60 meters.
The total length of the strait is about 400 kilometers, and the area is about 90,000 square kilometers.
The south is wide and the north is narrow, the south exit is about 400 kilometers wide, the north mouth is about 200 kilometers wide, and the narrowest part of the north is 130 kilometers.
For the discussion of the cross-sea passage of the Taiwan Strait, in general, there are three options:
North Line - Pingtan to Hsinchu; Middle Line - Nanri Island to Miaoli; Southern route - Kinmen to Penghu Islands to Chiayi.
Schematic diagram of the three routes of the Taiwan Strait cross-sea passage.
Whether the Taiwan Strait should be built as a bridge or a tunnel has not yet been determined.
But what is certain is that the probability of building an undersea tunnel is definitely greater than that of building a sea-crossing bridge.
The reason is simple, even at the narrowest 130 kilometers, the construction of the Taiwan Strait Bridge is no less difficult than the Qiongzhou Strait.
You must know that Taiwan is located in the Pacific Rim** belt, under which there are Eurasian plates, Philippine plates and Pacific plates interacting, and earthquake resistance is a big problem.
Three ** bands distribution map.
Building bridges in earthquake-prone areas is either insane or ignorant.
Second, the Taiwan Strait is often hit by typhoons, and the northeast monsoon affects for seven months from mid-to-late October every year, and the average wind force in the strait is 7 to 8 is commonplace, and it blows for a week, or even a month.
When the wind force is level 8, the wave height can reach more than six meters, which means that each wave is basically at least two stories high, and the impact on the bridge deck and piers can be imagined.
Therefore, relatively speaking, the construction of an undersea tunnel is more feasible.
But there are also problems that need to be solved when building tunnels.
The narrowest part of the Taiwan Strait has exceeded 100 kilometers, and the water depth is basically more than 60 meters, which must focus on ultra-long-distance ventilation and safety issues.
Satellite map of the Taiwan Strait.
Finally, there is a "problem" that is not a problem:
The construction of the Taiwan Strait cross-sea passage is at least hundreds of billions of funds, who will pay for it?
Theoretically, after the Taiwan issue is resolved, the money can be paid by **, but the premise is that sovereignty is mine, and everything is easy to discuss.
As far as Taiwan is concerned, its direct access to the world's largest market can be said to be a tiger with wings for its economic development, and it is only natural that it should bear part of the funds when the time comes.
Speaking of which, these three national-level cross-sea projects are inseparable from the strong national strength behind them.
No matter which cross-sea project, we are eager to realize it as soon as possible, and we have the opportunity to experience the joy of changing the moat into a thoroughfare.
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