Cross-straits tunnel touted by Chinese

Tunnel vision: Fujian governor Xi Jinpeng says the tunnel is a 'Chinese dream'

CHINA, Xiamen (CNN) -- A plan to link the Chinese mainland and Taiwan with a tunnel has been touted by Chinese scholars attending a specially convened conference.

The shortest of three proposed tunnel routes would still measure twice the length of the Channel Tunnel linking England and France.

The political challenges confronting the project would rival the technical difficulties, with China and independence-minded Taiwan presently not even sharing air or sea links, let alone a direct road link.

China's People's Daily online edition reported that 70 experts and scholars from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan gathered at Xiamen University to attend a seminar on building a combined bridge and tunnel link.

Three proposals are on the table, ranging from a 127-kilometer (79 miles) link to a mighty 207-kilometer (129 miles), island-hopping bridge and tunnel design.

QUOTE "The period of preparation vastly exceeds the period of construction." - Professor Wu Zhiming

"Construction of a cross-straits tunnel has become a dream of the Chinese people," Britain's Guardian newspaper quoted Xi Jinping, the governor of Fujian, as saying.

Fujian is the province from which the majority of Taiwanese originate and the proposed routes would begin.

Although in its nascent stages and born into a politically uncertain environment, Chinese scholars believe the project is feasible, albeit in the long term.

Qinghua University Professor Wu Zhiming was quoted by the Guardian as saying: "The special feature of macro-economic projects is that the period of preparation vastly exceeds the period of construction."

Citing relevant examples, Wu listed the Channel Tunnel which took 14 years of planning -- and had been discussed for the previous two centuries -- and the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river, planning for which began in the 1950s.

China had to be ready when the "moment of opportunity" arrived, said Wu.

According to People's Daily, the Xiamen seminar focused on the shortest of the three options under consideration, the so-called North Route.

This shorter option runs from Fujian's Pingtan to Taiwan's Hsinchu.

World's longest

Also being examined is the Middle Route, linking Putian with central Taiwan.

The longer South Route runs from Xiamen's Xiuqiao to Xiaojinmen, to Jinmen, then to Penghu via tunnel, reaches Taiwan's Jiayi (Chia-i) via bridge and tunnel, covering a distance of over 200 kilometers over the sea.

The longest underwater stretch of the southern route would be 130 km (81 miles) between the Jinmen and Penghu islands.

At the end of 1999, experts gathered in Pingtan and discussed the North Route plan.

Each of the plans rivals anything on the drawing boards of engineers around the world.

An underwater tunnel proposed between Japan and Korea would cover 120 kilometers, and another between Dublin, Ireland and Holyhead, Wales, 98 kilometers.

The longest tunnel now being planned anywhere in the world is the 55-kilometer tunnel to help link Lyon with Turin, which will not be completed until 2015-2020.