Have we ever wondered why China is always in the world’s limelight and India is not? Why do others pay more attention to what China does and says than to what we do and say? It can’t only be its sizzling GDP growth, since we aren’t doing badly either. It isn’t also its open economy, because we are open, too. Why is it, then, that the world inevitably regards China, not India, as Asia’s defining face?
No matter where I looked for an explanation, I always came back to three unavoidable conclusions. First, China is always in change, always trying to excel itself, always trying out new ideas. To an outside observer, this is the mark of a truly dynamic nation, a nation seriously engaged with its future, a dragon awake in its full glory, and that impresses. By comparison, India is but a sluggish elephant, though dignified in its gait.
Secondly, China has espoused the world in a way India will never be able to do because of India’s kinky mental make-up that thinks dependence on foreigners is a slur on its intelligence. If foreign designers, architects, sculptors, and town planners can produce a better, brighter, and more modern image, the Chinese won’t hesitate to engage them. Naturally, China is the world’s darling, despite Tiananmen Square; India is not, despite Bhopal.
Thirdly, China is capable of dreaming big and acting bigger, which makes it a nation of achievers. And when the achievements are bold and monumental, how can the world not pay attention? Here are a few of China’s new-age icons that are as impressive as the Great Wall or the terracotta warriors of Xian:
The Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project that spans the mighty Yangtze River, has cost $26 billion to build, and will produce up to 22,500 MW of electricity to serve an important industrial belt that includes Shanghai. Its deep, 600-km long reservoir has enough storage to reduce the frequency of devastating downstream floods from once in ten years to once in a hundred. Because of the dam, it’s now possible for even 10,000-tonne freighters to navigate up to 2,250 km inland from the East China Sea. The world may debate the wisdom of this project but can’t ignore its boldness.
The Golmud-Lhasa Railway that has ended Tibet’s isolation from the rest of China and presents to the world a stunning engineering feat that many thought could not be achieved. The 1,142-km link between Golmud in Qinghai province and the Tibetan capital took five years and $4.2 billion to build and crosses the Tanggula Pass 5,072 metres above sea level to become the world’s highest railway track. More than 80 per cent of the line has been laid at altitudes of 4,000 metres or more, and a stretch of 550 km is laid on permafrost requiring difficult track stabilisation measures.
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the world’s longest (36 km) sea-going bridge, is another impressive example of China’s will and daring. The “S” shaped, cable-stayed bridge, with six lanes in both directions and costing $1.7 billion, stretches across Hangzhou Bay to cut travel distance between Shanghai and Ningbo, the country’s second largest port, by 120 km. While this kind of saving may not be worthwhile for others, it’s critical for growth-obsessed China, where development is a race against time.
The Shanghai Maglev railway, connecting downtown Shanghai with Pudong International Airport, is the world’s first fully-commercial magnetic levitation railway. Travelling at up to 431 km an hour and covering a distance of 30 km in seven minutes and 20 seconds sharp, the $1.2 billion railway not only symbolises China as a nation in a hurry but has also set off a new craze for high-speed railway travel worldwide.
The Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3, hailed as the biggest man-made structure in the world in terms of area covered (986,000 sq. m.) when it opened in 2008 and now the second-largest airport terminal after Dubai. Designed like a stretched-out dragon by a consortium of foreign architectural firms led by UK’s Foster & Partners and built entirely from scratch at a cost of $3.5 billion, the new terminal offered a grand message of welcome to foreign visitors as they trooped in for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
To this very impressive list of achievements, one could, of course, add many more. The Olympic stadiums, for one thing, or Highway 312, China’s Mother Road, that crosses the country east to west from Shanghai to Khorgas on the border with Kazakhstan 4,967 km away. And surely there is the massive south-to-north water diversion project, likely to cost a whopping $62 billion and now in the full swing of construction.
Against such daring displays of vision, what have we got to show to get noticed? “Honour” killings in Delhi and church burnings in Orissa.
