Chinese infrastructure construction

Critics of the West tend to point to China's ability to build roads, airports, buildings, fast trains and whatnot at a much faster rate than can Australia, the USA, Canada and Europe etc. They're even planning to send a manned mission to the moon.


Watch this terrific video showing what is possible these days.

How are they able to achieve such a great outcome? Here are a few reasons:

• They have no shortage of funds to not only build the building but also create the company in the first place;
• They have the will of the government to support such expansion;
• They have the manpower available to build what they need; and
• Critically, they do not have environmental regulations and anti-development green groups to tie up their plans for years.

So what does that tell you about China?


Consider these facts:

• Using 1920s/30s technology the 102 floor Empire State Building took just 410 days to build;
• In 1933 construction started on the Golden Gate Bridge and was completed just 4 years later;
• In 1859 the British started work on the 450 miles of main sewers connecting over 13,000 miles of smaller sewers that would become the London sewerage system, completed in 1865; and
• In 1969 the United States landed a man on the moon.

Again, what does that tell you about China?


Well, that they're a number of decades behind the West, for starters, and are racing to catch up, which they're able to do (as are other fast-developing nations such as Brazil and India) by leveraging existing technologies created over the last 100 years in the West.


Combined with the number of empty cities they've built it also tells you that they're going to have a terrific contraction at some point, which will really hurt us out here in Australia given that our government has pissed away the strength of our economy and undermined, through poor industrial relations law, any chance we'll have for a quick recovery.


But the video is impressive nonetheless and really serves as a reminder of what was possible before government regulations and green groups got in the way.