Guangdong and Hainan are only 19 kilometers apart. Why not build a bridge across the sea?

China has been hailed as an "infrastructure madman" by media from all over the world. Whether it is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters, or the cold winter in northern Heilongjiang, China's infrastructure engineering teams are everywhere. But what puzzles many Chinese people is that there is no sea-crossing bridge between Guangdong and Hainan. Why is this?

1. The strategic location of the Qiongzhou Strait, the maritime checkpoint of the South China Sea

The Qiongzhou Strait is located between Guangdong Province and Hainan Province, and has been a strategic location for China's oceans since ancient times. During the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He led a large number of ships and goods to countries near the Indian Ocean in the South China Sea. When Zheng He visited Southeast Asian countries, he went through the Qiongzhou Strait. Since ancient times, the Qiongzhou Strait has always been the most important passage on the Maritime Silk Road.

In today's world, various straits are the most important part of maritime traffic and trade routes. If a country controls the straits, then it has the initiative in economics and trade. Such as the Straits of Malacca and the Straits of Gibraltar, the countries that master them can not only collect huge tolls every year, but also improve their political and economic status. For China, the Qiongzhou Strait is one of the most important straits. Whether it is the transportation of goods to Hainan Province or the flow of talents between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the Qiongzhou Strait is the only way to go.

The Qiongzhou Strait, which is located at 20 degrees north latitude, has obvious climatic characteristics. In summer, the temperature in the Qiongzhou Strait is high, the rainfall is heavy, and many typhoons pass through the Qiongzhou Strait every year, so the sea surface conditions of the Qiongzhou Strait are relatively unstable. The sea surface of the Qiongzhou Strait is prone to sea surface vortices. Not only that, there are many huge waves in the strait and the formation speed is fast. When a typhoon comes, the sea level rise will also accelerate rapidly.

Several billion years ago, the Qiongzhou Strait was formed due to the subsidence of the fault zone of the earth's crust. Due to the long-term crustal movement, the ground between the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan Island, which was originally connected, fractured and subsided under the action of earthquakes and volcanoes. At that time, the Qiongzhou Strait was a canyon, and there was no seawater. After the ice age, the temperature of the earth increased, and the glaciers melted in large areas, and then a large area of ​​the ocean was gradually formed. After more than a billion years of sea water erosion and erosion, the Qiongzhou Strait took shape today.

2. The importance of cross-sea bridges to promote the economic and cultural development of Hainan

In the last century, China wanted to build a sea-crossing bridge across Hainan and Guangdong. To achieve this ambitious goal, China has set up a panel of experts to study the construction of the Hainan Sea-Crossing Bridge. The national and provincial governments have invested a lot of manpower in the expert group to study the geological factors and the best plan for the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge. During this period, the expert group released many plans for the construction of the bridge.

The research report issued by the expert group on the construction of the Hainan Cross-sea Bridge shows that once the cross-sea bridge is completed, the journey between the two sides of the strait can be shortened to 10 minutes. This is a very big leap. You must know that the fastest way from Guangdong Province to Hainan Province was an hour away. After the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge, what positive significance will it have for Hainan Island and Guangdong Province?

In terms of economic and technological interaction, the completion of the cross-sea bridge will help Hainan Island to attract and retain talents, and it will also facilitate the timely communication and exchange of high-tech and information in Hainan Island.

In terms of economy, after the completion of the cross-sea bridge, the passenger flow in Hainan Province and Guangdong Province will increase, and the volume of cargo transportation will also increase. This can promote the economic development of Hainan Province and facilitate the transportation of goods for enterprises in Guangdong Province.

In terms of improving regional construction, because the infrastructure construction of Hainan Island is relatively backward, the completion of the bridge across the sea is conducive to the construction of infrastructure in Hainan Island. Not only that, after the completion of the cross-sea bridge, construction teams and raw materials from the mainland can come to Hainan Island to support the construction continuously and conveniently, the port trade transportation in Hainan will also be improved, and the logistics system in Hainan Province will also be improved.

3. What is the reason for the sea-crossing bridge project to run aground?

According to the research report issued by the expert group, if a sea-crossing bridge is to be built between Guangdong and Hainan, the best site is the Qiongzhou Strait. The research report shows that the Qiongzhou Strait is close to the north and south, and it is the most suitable place on the coast to build a sea-crossing bridge. The Qiongzhou Strait is the closest place between Guangdong and Hainan. The average north-south width is only 29 kilometers, and the nearest width is only 19 kilometers. Therefore, in the research report, the expert group believes that the construction of a sea-crossing bridge in the Qiongzhou Strait is the most economical plan. Since the 1990s, this plan has been proposed many times. Unfortunately, this plan has not been implemented so far. There are many reasons for this.

The first is the ecological factor in the construction of cross-sea bridges. Hainan Island is very important in the national development strategy. It is China's first "international tourism island", and it is also a key tourist attraction in China. Therefore, tourism is the pillar industry of Hainan, and the ecological strategy is the fundamental strategy of Hainan.

Tourism as the core has already been a consensus formed by Hainan society. When the leaders investigated Hainan Island, they emphasized that Hainan Island is a treasure island of the country, and environmental pollution on Hainan Island is not allowed under any circumstances. Due to the central government's instructions, the Hainan Island government has not allowed the establishment of large-scale mining enterprises, and the number of industrial enterprises has been controlled at a very low level. Therefore, there is no busy industrial logistics between Hainan Island and the mainland, and there is no need to transport mineral resources and industrial products from Hainan Island to the mainland, so the necessity of building a cross-sea bridge is greatly reduced.

The second point is the geological conditions for the construction of cross-sea bridges. Although the Qiongzhou Strait is very close to the north and south, the average water depth of the seawater has reached 44 meters, and the maximum water depth of some sea areas has reached 114 meters. The sea-crossing bridge needs to build the foundation on the seabed. Such a large water depth brings great technical difficulties to the bridge construction.

Moreover, the area near the Qiongzhou Strait is a seismically active plate. Once an earthquake occurs, the safety and stability of the sea-crossing bridge will be severely challenged. Therefore, the construction of the sea-crossing bridge requires stronger structures and materials.

The current in the Qiongzhou Strait flows from east to west, while the direction of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge is north-south, which means that the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge will always be impacted by the current. Once a typhoon occurs, the strength of the ocean current increases, and the safety of the bridge across the sea will be reduced.

The complex geographical factors in the Qiongzhou Strait make it extremely difficult to build bridges. Although the Chinese construction team is good at overcoming difficult problems, forcibly building the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge will increase construction investment. In the research report issued by the expert group, the budget for the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge is shown, which is an astonishing 140 billion RMB, which is still the initial budget. Be aware that the actual cost of construction projects will generally be higher than the initial budget. It is worth mentioning that the initial budget of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge is already higher than the actual total investment of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

Therefore, it is not impossible for China to build a bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait, but it is not necessary. If one day in the future, the national policy or the development of Hainan Island makes the sea-crossing bridge a necessary project, then I believe that the sea-crossing bridge will smoothly connect Hainan Island and mainland China.