Comment by screye

> reduces travel time between the two sides of the canyon from two hours to two minutes.

Think of it this way.

Every 2 hours round trip to 2 minutes saves imported fossil. For trucking/freight that's like ~$80 of diesel both ways.

PRC construction workers, though less abundant is cheaper than it ever will be. So best time to build infra is always now, especially one that reduces long tail imports.

Every piece of infra that cuts time (apart from cutting X time) is basically frontloading (domestic) steel and concrete to reduce future oil imports (and emissions). Rough napkin math, 2B rmb construction cossts = ~3m barrels of oil, 2b kms of travel. Shaving off 2hrs (guestimate ~150km) and it pays itself off in imported fuel metric between ~10m trips (for freight , more for passenger). Guizhou has 40m people, if a fraction goes to see the bridge, do some tourist shit (induced demand) it would go a long way to basically subsidize a bridge that cut logistics times and wear on tear for the region.

> Guizhou is a poor part of China

Look at Schenzen in the 70s... If you want your country to move forward you need infrastructure, otherwise poor parts stay poor

Could not part of its poverty problem be caused by the restrictive travel time and rough terrain that this bridge avoids and could help them become prosperous? If you only build prosperous things for prosperous areas, poorer areas will never get better and could even get worse in comparison as competing becomes even harder.

Its like if you put a dimensional portal across a Great Lake, even if neither side of the portal is currently not very prosperous, the fact that hours of ferry turned into minutes of travel would be a huge boon to both sides and gather attention, investments, and economic benefits that could turn both sides into prosperous cities.

That's how you develop a country. If you always go by short term economics, nothing will ever get done.

> The economic angle is a bit confusing.

We don't need an economic angle to build great things that help people.

It's a bridge, it's meant to be a shortcut from point A to B.

We aren't just cogwheels in an economic system, there's more to life and progress as humans.

Having spent a lot of time in Japan, construction there was a way to provide money to poor regions. You build some big project and pay people good wages and encourage growth of local industry. Not saying it's good or bad but the economics may be secondary to these goals

> The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment.

American mindset

I suspect that it's a "bragging rights" thing, more than anything else.

Nations, companies, etc., build these things to "show off." It's nothing new, the Babylonians, Sumerians, and Egyptians did it.

The Wikipedia page currently also states that it reduces the gorge crossing time from 70 minutes to one minute. So it definitely serves a purpose - whether we each judge that to be worth it is another question.

> Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China

I mean... that's exactly the reason?

Government funds get used to improve poorer regions to spread development. Improving transport links is a good way to do that

Plus it connects the country, which helps long-term stability

Think of these as more of interstate highways kind of projects

Because their philosophy is build the infrastructure and the wealth will follow. Fantastic philosophy if you ask me.

Bridge building in China is a way to flex for provinces right now. For better or worse, I guess, but infrastructure investment is cool.

.....Are you why we don't have infrastructure in the US?

If you want to uplift a region, you invest into it. A bridge that cuts travel time by 2 hours increases domestic trade, it can even increase domestic and international tourism long term.

Apart from what others already mentioned (build and improvements will follow): construction is the main tool the CCP uses in padding economic numbers. And that sectors has not been doing well for a while now, with all the unused ghost metropoles sitting idle. These projects are there not just to improve the local region, but also to keep the construction sector afloat.