By This tunnel idea is more unbelievable than the Korea to Japan tunnel that has long been speculated about:
An undersea tunnel linking South Korea’s west coast and China’s Shandong region could generate economic benefits worth W275 trillion (US$1=W1,166) for Korea, China and Japan, a study says.
The study was unveiled at an international seminar on the tunnel in Seoul on Thursday. It was organized by the Gyeonggi Research Institute (GRI) under the sponsorship of China’s Shandong Academy of Social Sciences.
GRI vice president Cho Eung-rae said if the tunnel is built, it will produce economic benefits worth W116 trillion for Korea, W150.7 trillion for China, and W8.6 trillion for Japan.
Linking express railways in the two countries, the tunnel would shorten travel from Seoul to Shanghai to five hours and 31 minutes and to Beijing to four hours and 26 minutes, he said. This could result in creating a huge economic sphere linking about 24 million people in the Seoul area with some 272.1 million in the Beijing and Shanghai regions. [Chosun Ilbo]
It would be pretty cool to be able to drive to Beijing in 4.5 hours from Seoul, but I don’t see this tunnel being feasible. Here is a Google Earth image of the Yellow Sea region:
The distance this tunnel would have to travel would be 200 miles, all underwater. Unlike the tunnel to Japan, the Yellow Sea tunnel would have no islands to connect to make the tunnel more feasible. As unlikely as this may seem as well, it actually appears more feasible to work something out with the North Koreans to get a highway built to connect South Korea to China then pouring money into this tunnel idea.
It is the sad reality. No mistake...
12:53 am on October 11th, 2009 1
They're talking about a high-speed rail line, which certainly makes a whole lot more sense than a canal all the way down the Korean peninsula.
12:55 am on October 11th, 2009 2
I would also like to express some hesitation from a geologic perspective. The oceanic crust in this area of the world is not exactly the most peaceful. They could build this tunnel and nothing might happen for a peaceful couple of decades or so, but it seems like it would only be a matter of time before the thing would get a big enough shake to crush and drown a few thousand people. Plus, if the construction timetable on a project like this was five or more years, the North could collapse and open up by then.
It would be cool if they could do it though…
10:56 am on October 11th, 2009 3
Will it be big enough to roll tanks through?
1:53 pm on October 11th, 2009 4
Never happen as long as North Korea is so close. The threat would be enough to create political nightmares.
10:24 pm on October 11th, 2009 5
Totally not going to happen. It’s much more likely S. Korea will become puppets of the Chinese and in turn will betray the poor, enslaved, poverty ridden people of N. Korea. Wait, that’s already happening lol!
7:28 am on October 12th, 2009 6
[...] Drop has a fascinating post on a proposed tunnel from Shandong to South Korea! And NK Leadership Watch has another vigilant post on the Dear Leader’s peregrinations, [...]
2:43 am on December 29th, 2009 7
[...] new venture in time, a reeling of line which would stretch cross archipelagos and peninsulas hence, an underground freeway which would put this place head and shoulders above the competition terrestrial. North Korea [...]
11:11 am on September 23rd, 2010 8
As a citizen of Weihai, the nearest city to Korea in China, I support this plan,because the small city will benifit a lot from this project.
But where to get so much money to invest? I think your Korean enjoy most of the benifit and should invest most.
3:04 pm on September 23rd, 2010 9
There is no way that this tunnel is ever going to be built. With the wacko NK regime who bombed the SK leadership in Burma, blew a SK airliner out of the sky, and sank a SK naval vessel murdering 46 sailors there is just way too much risk involved. The current longest undersea portion of a tunnel is the 'chunnel' linking the UK with France which is 31.4 miles long. The Seikan tunnel in Japan overall is longer but the undersea portion is slightly shorter. Jacob #2 had two excellent points, i.e. the area is geologically unstable and if it was feasible why not wait for the NK regime to collapse. GI Korea, your proposed alternative of bribing the NK to allow a Red China to South Korea highway will never work. Everytime the NK get a wild hair up their pipers they would shut the highway down, just look at the current free trade zone. After billions were spent building the highway the NK would arbitrarily try to jack up the rates with the threat of closure.
7:53 pm on September 23rd, 2010 10
@Tom Langley
I agree with you that unless the Kim's NK regime collapse can we built the undersea tunnel.
I am interesting in your word "Red China",
Can you tell me the difference between the Red China and a normal country?
10:29 am on September 24th, 2010 11
Wang #10 'Red China' is a normal country. It is a term that has been in use since 1949 in the US to distinguish the mainland (People's Republic of China) from Taiwan (Republic of China). I actually use the term because of habit, I'm 55 years old. The 'Red' refers to socialism or communism. Most of the people who post on this blog are either current active duty military, former military, or retired military such as myself. I find it very interesting that you have discovered this blog. Maybe in a few years I would like to visit your country. In 1996 I visited Hong Kong but it was still under British administration. I hope that we can agree that when and if the NK regime collapses that it will be good for your country, my country, and the Korean peninsula as a whole.
11:06 am on September 24th, 2010 12
Wang #10 The term 'Red China' is a figure of speech. It was coined in 1949 after the communist revolution to distinguish the mainland (called the People's Republic of China) from Taiwan (called the Republic of China). I use it just out of habit. The 'Red' in 'Red China' refers to socialism & communism. Red China is a normal country. I hope some day to visit your country. I have been to Hong Kong once but that was when it was still under British administration. I have also been to Taiwan. During that trip I just didn't have the time or the funds to visit your country.
1:14 pm on September 24th, 2010 13
'Red China' is just a figure of speech to indicate mainland China (People's Republic of China) as distinguished from Taiwan (Republic of China). The 'Red' refers to socialism or communism. The term was coined after the Chinese communist revolution in 1949. I am kind of old so it is just a habit that I have.
1:20 pm on September 24th, 2010 14
Red China is a normal country. The term 'Red China' is just a figure of speech. After the Chinese communist revolution in 1949 the term was coined to mean the Chinese mainland (People's Republic of China) as opposed to Taiwan (Republic of China). I use the term as I am old and it is a habit. China is communist, hence 'red' so the term is not a pejorative.
3:04 pm on September 24th, 2010 15
Wang 10, the Chinese flag is still red.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndV49YRGoik&fe…
5:26 pm on September 24th, 2010 16
@Tom Langley
Thank you very much for your explaination.
As a young sutdent who have never been to the western world ,I am just curious about your attitudes towards "Red China", nothing else. I didn't know this blog was a US military one, I heard some news about the undersea tunnel project and want to learn S Korean's attitude towards this project, so I googled it and got the link, I thought this was a Korean blog.
@Glans
Yes, the flag is still and will be red, even for a long time.
Because there are so many contents against the communist party on the youtube.com, China goverment blocks the acess to that website, so I cannot watch that video. Thers are many websites blocked in China, such as BBC Chinese, VOA Chinese, Radio Free Asia, Facebook, Twitter, sometimes even google.
As a non-English native speaker, my English is poor, so I don't know if I have expressed clearly. Sorry for that.
5:39 pm on September 24th, 2010 17
Actually, I am also looking forward to visiting your country ,one day.
I hope I can earn enough money for that.
6:22 pm on September 24th, 2010 18
Wang 16, click on About to find out more about the ROK drop. It's run by a service member, but the Pentagon doesn't endorse it. I hope your government doesn't notice this blog, because there's a lot of anticommunist opinion here. Maybe some day China will discard commnunism and change its flag, but I'll let you Chinese decide that. Your English is excellent.
12:56 pm on September 26th, 2010 19
GI Korea, sorry for the multiple post. When I posted the comments didn't show up so I thought there was some kind of f up so I tried to do it again & again. Wang, your English is very good, you express yourself very well. I hope you will continue to contribute to this blog as I think the opinion of a Chinese citizen would be of interest to all of us. If you hear of anything in regards to the proposed tunnel please let the blog know or please contribute to any other story that interest you. Thank you for contributing to the discussion.
4:17 pm on September 30th, 2010 20
Thank you very much for your praise and encouragement. These days I was busy with my own study and havn't visited this blog. As I am not a member of the party, all I concerned is the truth, not for or against the party.
@Glans
Yes, it is our Chinese's own business to decide if we discard the communism or not, but you konw, the leaders of the country are not elected directly by citizens, instead they are nominated by the communist party, there is only one political party in China, we don't have the right to choose Republican or Democratic to support, so the citizens don't have the rights and power to discard it . On the other hand, the members of the party themselves don't believe in communism, but, you konw, the communism is the basic of the regime, by protecting communism they can gain and preserve lots of benifits, so they will take any means to protect that system.
S it seems difficult to discard, that is why I said "the flag is still and will be red, even for a long time".
@Tom Langley
It's my pleasure to communicate with you foreigners, for we can kown each other better. As for the proposed tunnel, there are lots of comments online in some Chinese website. If don't take the North Korea factor into consideration, most of the netizens (people who comment online) favor this plan, especially the people in Shandong Province. A professor of Ludong University are doing some study on this project. Now I don't have much time, I will select and post lots of opinions in China later.
Today is the National Day of PR China, we have a 7-days holiday, but my professor list lots of book for me, I don't have much time.
4:20 pm on September 30th, 2010 21
Anything to talk about, Please mail to wangch67@student.sysu.edu.cn