Chinese railway experts are urging the government to consider the feasibility of a rail line that connects the nation with the United States.

Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said scholars and researchers have been discussing the seemingly unimaginable railway for a long time.

He said the 13,000-km-long line was expected to start in northeastern China and go through Russia's eastern Siberia, the Bering Strait, Alaska, Canada and then reach the contiguous US.

"In the past, the technology in tunnel construction was not good enough to materialize this idea, but with the rapid development of engineering techniques, it is now possible to build a tunnel beneath the Bering Strait," Wang said.

Once the line is put to use, bullet trains can run at 350 km per hour, enabling passengers to travel from northeastern China to the US in less than two days, according to Wang.

He added that Russia, which is heavily dependent on rail transport like China, is also progressively advocating the idea.

Zhao Lei

(China Daily USA 05/09/2014 page5)