The Qiongzhou Strait is one of the three major straits in China, located between the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan Island. The strait is about 80 kilometers long from east to west, with a maximum width of 39 from north to south5 km, only 19 at its narrowest point4 km, belonging to the inland sea of China.
Qiongzhou Strait. So far, there is no bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait, and the only way to cross the strait is by ferry, even if it is the Guangdong Railway, you need to ferry the train across the sea by ferry, and the whole process takes about 3 hours.
The train ferries across the sea.
The traditional mode of transportation, in fact, the transportation efficiency is very low, the time cost is very high, and it can no longer adapt to the development of modern society and economy, so the call for building a cross-sea bridge to replace the traditional ferry is getting higher and higher, but it has not been able to do so.
Sea-crossing bridge. Is it possible that the width of the strait restricts the construction of the bridge? Not really. You must know that the famous "Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge" has a total length of 55 kilometers, which is nearly three times the length of the Qiongzhou Strait. If the width of the strait is a key factor affecting the sea-crossing bridge, if the Qiongzhou Strait cannot be built, it will be even more difficult to build the Taiwan Strait, because the Taiwan Strait is as wide as 130 kilometers at its narrowest point.
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
There are actually three reasons for restricting the construction of a bridge across the sea in the Qiongzhou Strait. First of all, it is "narrow", the key reason for restricting the construction of the bridge is precisely because the Qiongzhou Strait is too narrow, the narrowest point is only less than 20 kilometers, although the amount of work is small, but it has a great impact on maritime traffic.
The narrowest part of the Qiongzhou Strait is less than 20 kilometers.
Compared with the world-famous Strait of Malacca, which is only 37 kilometers at its narrowest point, Malacca also faces the dilemma of the strait being too narrow, because the waterway is busy, which can easily cause cargo ships to be blocked. The Qiongzhou Strait is China's leading waterway, connecting the Beibu Gulf and the South China Sea, and is also a shortcut to maritime traffic from Guangdong to Vietnam and other places.
Strait of Malacca.
Qiongzhou Strait. The second is natural causes, the Qiongzhou Strait is located in the first belt and monsoon area, thunderstorms and foggy weather in summer, and it is also the necessary place for Pacific typhoons, which will be swept by typhoons every year, even if the cross-sea ferry is often suspended, which will not only increase the incidence of traffic accidents, but also face the embarrassment of frequent closure, the traffic efficiency is not high, and the technical requirements for the bridge are very high.
Typhoons are frequent. There is also the issue of economic benefits, at present, Hainan Island's supporting industries or tourism, industry and agriculture are relatively weak, the population is only 10 million people, the economic volume is not equal to Guangdong, etc., spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build a cross-sea bridge to produce economic benefits is not yet known. Therefore, Hainan Island still needs to form its own perfect industrial chain.
Hainan Island's industry is dominated by tourism.
Finally, as a digression, there is a problem that few people know about, and that is the movement of the earth's crust. The available evidence suggests that Hainan Island is an island that "floated" from the Beibu Gulf, and it was still rotating as it went, about 150 degrees counterclockwise, to reach its current position.
In the future, Hainan Island will rotate slowly counterclockwise like a spinning top, moving southeastward, and it is said that it may eventually float near the Strait of Malacca, and then we will have control over Malacca, but this will be millions of years from now.
Schematic diagram of the evolution of Hainan Island.
Of course, this drift will have little impact on the construction of the bridge, but given the above, it is possible that an undersea tunnel will be more feasible than a bridge, even if a cross-sea passage is to be built.