High-tech ensures success

Building tunnels is nothing new for Chinese engineers, yet boring the longest underwater tunnel in the world requires years of detailed planning.

Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the Bohai Sea Tunnel project has been discussed for more than two decades and involved more than 100 experts. Now, Wang said, the technology is sophisticated enough thanks to the successful construction of the 8-km Jiaozhou Bay Tunnel and the 9-km Xiamen Xiang'an Tunnel.

Jiaozhou Bay is about 75 meters deep, roughly the same depth as Bohai Bay, which means it is feasible to apply the drilling and blasting method to the planned tunnel's construction.