Posted on

China to fund and build $3.9bn railway from Nigeria’s capital to the sea

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/china-fund-and-build-39bn-railway-nigerias-capital/?fbclid=IwAR2O0SGjoGMWpsWpbMxsctI6vZPEZrruDAwa4X_QUhFvb_kExbShTMWzybM The government of Nigeria yesterday signed a contract with state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) to build a major new railway linking the capital Abuja to the port city of Warri, a distance by air of approximately 440km.

The project is valued at $3.9bn, Nigerian media reported, adding that it would be a public-private partnership, with Nigeria providing an equity stake of 15%, CRCC an equity stake of 10%, and the remaining 75% borrowed from Cina’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank. 

The project includes the construction of a new port at Warri, reports said.

CRCC will operate the railway and the port to recover its investment.

Posted on

Ugayati Panshan Highway, Tashkurgan-Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang, China

新疆塔什库尔干塔吉克自治县吾格亚提盘山公路。2019年7月投入使用。 在中国西陲的新疆帕米尔高原，塔什库尔干塔吉克自治县县城到瓦恰乡之间有条蜿蜒的盘山公路，海拔超4200米，全长36公里，最大落差近1000米，被当地人称为“高原天路”。 New Sky road on the Pamir Plateau, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Elev.4200m, 36km long, 1000m gain. Opened in July, 2019

Posted on

Chinese to clone gene-edited monkeys

On 24 January, scientists at the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) in Shanghai reported that they had used gene-editing to disable a gene in macaque monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) that is crucial to their sleep–wake cycle. The scientists then cloned one of those monkeys to produce five primates with almost identical genes.

It is the first time that researchers have cloned a gene-edited monkey and proof of principle for the researchers’ plan to create populations of genetically identical primates that they say will revolutionize biomedical research. Some of the researchers are part of the new International Centre for Primate Brain Research, which has the goal of creating such populations and received government funding in November.

In Europe and the US, non-human-primate research increasingly faces regulatory hurdles, costs and bioethical opposition. This stands in contrast to China; the country’s 2011 five-year plan set primate disease models as a national goal. The science ministry followed up by investing 25 million yuan (US$3.9 million) into the endeavour in 2014.

Posted on

Chinese subway tunnel 288 feet under the SEA

Chinese workers have built a subway tunnel reaching as deep as 88 metres (288 feet) under the surface of the sea.

The tunnel connects the eastern and western parts of Qingdao separated by the Jiaozhou Bay

The passage measures 8.1 kilometres (five miles) long, with 3.49 kilometres (2.1 miles) submerged under the Yellow Sea. It is the longest and deepest undersea subway tunnel in China.

It is also about 100 feet deeper than the Bosphorus rail tunnel in Istanbul, which is said to be the world’s deepest underwater railway tunnel.

Construction of the impressive cross-sea link was finished on Wednesday after having started in 2015, reported China Central Television Station.

It is part of the No. 1 Metro Line in Qingdao, an eastern metropolis with around nine million people. A former German colony, the city is dubbed China’s ‘capital of beer’ because of its famous lager Tsingdao.