108 Giant Chinese Infrastructure Projects That Are Reshaping The World

Vivian Giang and Robert Johnson

Image: wikipedia commons

There's an old Chinese saying that goes: “If you want to be rich, you must first build roads.”

And, boy, have they built some roads: In the past year, we've seen the world's longest sea bridge, the world's longest gas pipeline and a high-speed railway that's left everyone else in the dust — literally.

The resultant infrastructure push is incredible. A list of 108 super projects is floating around Chinese message boards and we picked out the 45 coolest ones to showcase here.

From highways spanning the continent, to the largest wind power base in the world, to a modern Silk Road that links Europe and India, to new cities in the desert, China is showing what it really means to do big things.

$102 MILLION: The Pingtang telescope will be the world’s largest radio telescope when completed in 2016

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$176 MILLION: Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory conducts China's major scientific projects and is the country's most expensive research facility

Image: sinap

$200 MILLION: The Guangzhou Opera House is one of the three biggest theaters in China, designed by architect Zaha Hadid

Image: chill 05 via flickr

$368 MILLION: The Hainan power grid project is China’s first underwater cross sea power grid and will link the southern island of Hainan to mainland China

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$473 MILLION: The Qinling Tunnel is longest highway tunnel in China

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$717 MILLION: The Kashgar-Hotan Railway connects all the cities and towns of the southwestern Tarim Basin

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$760 MILLION: China Central TV Headquarters is a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections covering 1,551,837 ft.

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$900 MILLION: The Tianhuangping hydroelectric project is the biggest in Asia and plays a vital role in providing power supply in eastern China

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$1.1 BILLION: The Shanghai World Financial Center Project is home to the second highest hotel in the world - the Park Hyatt Shanghai is on the 79th floor

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$1.3 BILLION: The Baltic Pearl Project is China's largest foreign development project and consists of residential and commercial properties outside St. Petersburg, Russia

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$1.7 BILLION: The Wuhan Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge is a combined road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in the city of Wuhan

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$1.7 BILLION: The Nanjing Metro Line was completed in 2005 and is used by almost 180 million people a year

Image: China Transportation Board

$1.8 BILLION: The Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge is the fifth longest cable-stayed bridge in the world

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$1.9 BILLION: The Chengdu Shuangliu Airport will annually handle 35 million passengers

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$2.12 BILLION: The Wuhan Railway Station serves the world's fastest trains at 217 mph

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$2.2 BILLION: At 128 stories, The Shanghai Tower will be the tallest skyscraper in China and the second tallest in the world when completed in 2014

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$2.2 BILLION: The Qinshan Nuclear Power Phase II will add to the Qinshan plant and have the most nuclear reactors of any site in the world

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$2.88 BILLION: The Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power station in northeastern China and will reach 45 billion kWh annually

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$3 BILLION: The Great Gabon Belinga iron ore mine is China's largest African mining operation

Image: rogiro on flickr

$3.3 BILLION: The Tianjin offshore drilling rig is China's national base for offshore oil development

Image: hypersaline.net via flickr

$3.5 BILLION: The Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal is the largest single construction project in China and the third largest building in the world

Image: thewamphyri on flickr

$4.5 BILLION: Lingang New City, a planned city to be completed in 2020, will house almost 1 million people

$6.3 BILLION: The Xiangjiaba Hydro power Project is expected to be completed by 2015 and generate 31 billion kwh annually

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$5 BILLION:The Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev project will create the fastest inter-city train in the world at 280 mph

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$6.3 BILLION: The Beijing South Railway Station is Asia's largest railway station

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$6.5 BILLION: China is one out several countries that signed a contract to re-construct the ancient “Silk Road” linking China and India with Europe

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$6.76 BILLION: Xiluodu Dam will be the third tallest dam in the world and second largest hydro-power station in the country.

Image: International Rivers

$7.89 BILLION: The Su-Tong Yangtze River Bridge is the world's longest cable-stayed bridge

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$8 BILLION: The Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port Project will handle the largest container ships in the world

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$8.3 BILLION: The Nigerian Railway Modernization Project is China's largest overseas project

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$10.2 BILLION: The Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong province will be the biggest nuclear power plant in China

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$10.2 BILLION: The Guangdong Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station will be China's newest power plant when completed in 2013

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$10.7 BILLION: The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge project will connect two huge regions when completed in 2016

Image: Steve O via flickr

$12 BILLION: The Hainan Wenchang Space Center launch project will be the country’s newest launch center

Image: DragonRal via flickr

$14 BILLION: The Harbin–Dalian High-Speed Railway will serve the first high speed train in northeast China

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$16 BILLION: Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the world's longest cross-sea bridge project

Image: hto2008 on flickr

$18.2 BILLION: The Jiuquan Wind Farm will be the largest wind power base in the world when completed in 2013

Image: Land Rover Our Planet via flickr

$23.1 BILLION: The Kunming New International Airport will be China's 4th largest aviation hub

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With no room for expansion at the current Kunming Wujiaba International Airport, the local government decided to build a new airport tentatively called Kunming Xiaoshao International Airport. With the completion of the new Kunming, the old Kunming will be demolished and all operations will be transferred from the old to the new.

$33 BILLION: The Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway is the world's longest high-speed rail project

Image: M.I.C Gadget via flickr

$44 BILLION: China is one out of 32 countries who signed an agreement for the construction of highways to span the continent and reach Europe

Image: Wikimedia Commons

$45.4 BILLION: The Ningxia’s Ningdong Energy and Chemical Industrial Base will double the province’s GDP and generate $30.3 billion after the planned 2020 completion

Image: China

$62 BILLION: The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is expected to divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water to the north by 2050

$306.7 BILLION: The "Turn the Pearl River Delta Into One" will result in an urban "mega-city" bigger than Wales

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$458 BILLION: The Tianjin Harbor Industrial Zone is one of the largest chemical ports in the world

Image: China Daily

Other Great Chinese Infrastructures worth mentioning

Image: rikj via flickr

$2.6 billion: China's construction of the Libyan coastal railway project
$4.5 billion: Guangzhou Nansha Lair shipbuilding base project
$5.0 billion: Niger oil project
$5.4 billion: Changxing Shipbuilding Base will be the world's largest shipbuilding base project
$7 billion: Sudanese oil project
$7 billion: China's construction of the Algerian East-West Highway Project
$10.7 billion: Baosteel million-ton steel base project in Zhanjiang East Island
$11.7 billion: Rural Market Project
$20 billion: Portland Oilfield Sinopec investment
$26.8 billion: Tianjin ethylene project
$38 billion: Zhangzhou and Fuzhou-Xiamen railway projects
$77.5 billion: Super markets projects
$77.5 billion: Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Project
$237 billion: State Environmental Protection Eleventh Five-Year Plan
$800 billion: Zhejiang Sanmen nuclear power project
$900 billion: Northern Energy and Chemical Base project
$1 trillion: Tianjin Binhai New Area investment

Even more are listed here.