News on China's scientific and technological development.

Terrific video slideshow showing construction of the Guangzhou-Wuhan HSR line

zoom said:

To Martian>
As someone who is interested in CHR,i appreciate your recent posts.Cheers !

I guess China will surely win the contract for California which should help them with more foreign deals. The UK is also planning HSR but may do this by themselves.But if the price is right ! who knows?

*Can someone tell me if there is a way for me to increase my quota ?
I notice the middle one doesn't enlarge well here ,you can find it here>

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Zoom, thank you for your kind words. I think your picture quota per post is based on your membership level, which is dependent on your total number of posts.

Anyway, for those of you that are interested in a pictorial overview of the machines involved in the different phases for the construction of the Guangzhou-Wuhan HSR line, the following video is among the best. Also, it is accompanied by a nice soundtrack.

Make sure to select 480p in the bottom right-hand corner for better picture quality:

Nanchang-Jiujiang high-speed rail officially opens tomorrow

"The high-speed rail between Nanchang and Jiujiang will officially open tomorrow."


Nanchang-Jiujiang HSR

Pictures of the construction of the Nanchang-Jiujiang HSR from last year:


Workers fix a bridge steel girder at a construction site of the Nanchang-Jiujiang intercity railway near Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province, July 8, 2009. The Nanchang-Jiujiang intercity railway, the second of its kind built in China, will link Jiujiang, on the lower reach of the Yangtze River, with Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua Photo)


Workers prepare to fix a bridge steel girder at a construction site of the Nanchang-Jiujiang intercity railway near Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province, July 8, 2009. The Nanchang-Jiujiang intercity railway, the second of its kind built in China, will link Jiujiang, on the lower reach of the Yangtze River, with Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province. The 92.126-kilometer long intercity railway has a designed speed of 200 km per hour and will be completed in 2010. China's first intercity express is the 115-km Beijing-Tianjin link, which began operation in 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

[Note: Thank you to "Carnivore" for the post.]

Taiwan is "world's largest semiconductor equipment market"





"SEMICON Taiwan marks 15th anniversary
Updated Tuesday, September 7, 2010 11:17 pm TWN, By Alan Fong, The China Post

In the important exhibition's 15th year being held in Taiwan, the 2010 SEMICON will highlight eight themes pivotal to the future of the industry: LEDs (light-emitting diodes), MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems), 3D ICs (three-dimensional integrated circuits) & Advanced Packaging/Testing, green management, compound semiconductors, CMP (chemical mechanical planarization), AOI (automated optical inspection) and secondary markets for capital equipment. Specific pavilions are allocated to each of these themes with three additional region-themed pavilions: Cross-Strait Pavilion, Korea Pavilion and France Pavilion, said Terry Tsao, president of SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) Taiwan and Southeast Asia at a pre-show press conference yesterday.


From left: Huang Kae, Christopher Wargo, Dr. Tong Ho-ming, Dr. Burn Lin, Dr. Ching Hu, Giuseppe Izzo, and Terry Tsao pose for photos during a news conference for the SEMICON Taiwan 2010, held yesterday. (Courtesy of SEMICON Taiwan)

A total of 560 exhibitors from 17 countries will participate in the exhibition, occupying 1,150 booths, in which over 163 exhibitors will be showcasing their new products.

The host country has been the center of the semiconductor industry in 2010. According to the 2010 mid-year edition of the SEMI Capital Equipment Forecast, Taiwan accounted for the lion's share of the global semiconductor equipment market; experiencing rapid growth in all regions in 2010. The island is home to the world's largest semiconductor equipment market, occupying US$9.18 billion of the US$32.5 billion in global sales forecasted.

In the highlight of yesterday's press conference, a panel of executives from some of the industry's main players discussed how innovative collaboration can be the key of for technology advancement. Giuseppe Izzo, STMicroelectronics' regional vice president of greater China and South Asia, pointed out that mobility will be an important trend for the semiconductor industry, leading to the need for ever-smaller CPUs, GPUs and APs in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, more powerful telecommunication networks, power supply with higher sufficiency, etc. Innovations in semiconductor applications in other fields such as cloud computing, LEDs, bio-medical devices and data security will also be important to the industry, Izzo said.

As the exponential advancement of miniaturization technology predicted by the once seemingly infallible Moore's Law, which states that the amount of transistors on a chip will double roughly every two years, is questioned by its creator, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, himself, the industry is looking for cutting-edge technologies to sustain its growth. One such emerging technology is MEMS; the groundbreaking mix of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and nanotechnology that has the potential to change the future for every silicon-related product.

Dr. Ching Hu, president of Touch Micro-system Technology Corp., pointed out that while wide application of MEMS is at its early stage and mass production of such technologies is still a challenge, the micro-system can revolutionize products such as mobile devices, game consoles, 3-dimensional projectors, pico-projectors, etc. One of the challenges facing Taiwanese manufacturers is their lack of know-how in developing a humanized interface, Hu said.

Another way around Moore's Law is the 3D IC and packaging technologies, said Dr. Tong Ho-ming, general manager and chief technology officer of the ASE Group. Despite tremendous progress in recent years, 3D IC with through silicon vias (TSVs) still presents significant challenges in cost, design, manufacturing, test and supply chain readiness and the technology is still three to five years away from mass production, Tong said.

Innovation and cooperation are also needed in green semiconductor manufacturing, said Hsu Fang-ming, deputy-director of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). He called for the industry to work at both global and local levels to tackle the challenge.

Other executives at the panel included Dr. Burn Lin, senior director at TSMC's Nano Patterning Technology Division."

Changping line of Beijing's rail system starts test run



Changping line of Beijing's rail system starts test run
09:39, September 20, 2010


An urban rail train gets ready to set out from Shahe Station at the newly-built Changping line in Beijing, capital of China, on Sept. 19, 2010. The line's first seven stations will be put into service at the end of 2010. The line will use a new type of urban rail train with a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour. It is the fastest urban rail train, which is produced by China South Locomotive, in Beijing's transportation system.


Guests of honor and journalists examine the train at Shahe Station for the newly-built Changping line in Beijing, capital of China, on Sept. 19, 2010.


The Changping line of Beijing's rail transportation system, which links the central urban area and Changping District of Beijing, started a load-free test run on Sunday.

High-speed rail linking central and western China starts operation



"High-speed rail linking central and western China starts operation
10:19, February 07, 2010


With a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the high-speed Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train coded G2004 is about to leave Xi'an for Zhengzhou from Xi'an Railway Station in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Feb. 6, 2010. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

A high-speed railway linking central China city Zhengzhou and northwestern city Xi'an, went into operation Saturday.

The 505-km Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway, the first of its kind in central and western China, cuts the travel time between the two cities from formerly more than six hours to less than two hours, said local railway authorities Saturday.

The first train left Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, at 10:50 a.m. and arrived at Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, at 1:15 p.m., said Long Jing, head of the Xi'an Railway Bureau.

The train traveled at 350 kilometers per hour, said Long. A total of 14 trains would be traveling between Zhengzhou and Xi'an everyday, said Long.

The first train from Zhengzhou to Xi'an departed from Zhengzhou at 11:25 a.m. and arrived at Xi'an at 2:01 p.m., said Niu Jianfeng, spokesman of the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau.


With a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, a high-speed Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train is being tested en route from Xi'an to Zhengzhou, in Tongguan, northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Feb. 4, 2010. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

The Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway, included in the country's "Mid- and long-term railway network plan", has been built since Sept. 25, 2005, with a total investment of about 35.31 billion yuan (5.17 billion U.S. dollars), said Niu.

"The Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway will meet the growing demand of of passenger and cargo transportation in central and western China, and help promote local development," said Wang Yongping, spokesman of the Ministry of Railways.

Henan is one of the major grain producers of China and an emerging economic and industrial powerhouse. This most populous province in China is also a major tourist attraction with a great number of sites of historical and cultural interests. Shaanxi boasts rich cultural resources and is endowed with rich natural resources such as coal, petroluem, and natural gas.


Passengers ride in the high-speed Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train coded G2003 heading to Xi'an from Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, on Feb. 6, 2010. The first high-speed passenger railway in western China, which links Xi'an with Zhengzhou, started operation on Saturday morning. The 505-km line will help shorten the travel time between the two major cities to less than two hours from the current six hours. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

The country's total railway coverage will be more than 110,000 kilometers by 2012 and 120,000 kilometers by 2020, according to the "Mid- and long-term railway network plan".

"By 2012, it will take less than eight hours to travel by train from Beijing to most provincial capitals in China," said Long.

Source: Xinhua"


For your information, in addition to the new high-speed rail, Zhengzhou also has new highways.




Zhengzhou's new highway

Shanghai's 1st modern streetcar line starts operation




Shanghai's first modern streetcar line begins operation in the east China city on January 1, 2010. There are 15 stations along the 9.8-kilometer route with a flat ticket fare of 2 yuan. It connects with Shanghai Metro Line 2 at Zhangjiang High Tech station. [Photo/Xinhua]


Passengers take a ride inside a modern streetcar in Shanghai on January 1, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's growth is simply astonishing; it is blowing my mind.
Here is some more>

Shenyang, the capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province, will open its first subway line in October. Final technical tests and adjustments are now underway. The Subway Line 1, consisting of 22 stops, with total distance of 28 kilometers will be an east-west subway, stretching from Shenyang Economic Technology Development Zone to Liming Square. The Shenyang subway line will be the first underground line in China's northeast area.

Looks like China is in the midst of a railway fever.

On another note, China has already pass the United States in electrical power generation judging by the figures in this news.




English.news.cn 2010-09-20 16:12:36 FeedbackPrintRSS

BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's installed power generation capacity has exceeded 900 million kilowatts Monday after a reactor with the second phase of Ling'ao Nuclear Power Plant began operation in Guangdong Province, chief of the country's top economic planner said.

Zhang Ping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), hailed the achievement as "a new stage of development" for China's power industry at a forum held in Beijing on nuclear power development.

"Starting from a weak basis, we have explored a path of healthy development for the country's electricity industry," Zhang told the forum.

According to the NDRC, it took China 38 years to raise its power generating capacity to 100 million kilowatts in 1987 from 1.85 million kilowatts when new China was founded in 1949.

Before topping the key mark of 900 millon kilowatts, China lifted its electricity generating capacity to 500 million kilowatts in 2005.

Zhang said China will continue to transform the growth pattern of the electricity industry and further facilitate its restructuring by producing more clean energy.

He said during the Eleventh Five-year (2006-2010) period, China has cut capacity at small thermal power plants by 71 million kilowatts to reduce heavy pollution emissions.

China now has the world's largest hydro power capacity of about 200 million kilowatts, and 22 million kilowatts of wind power capacity.

With 10 million kilowatts of capacity at six nuclear power plants, China plans to raise its nuclear power capacity to 60 million kilowatts by 2020, Zhang Guobao, director of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said in an interview last month.

China has long relied on coal to fuel its economic growth as about three quarters of its electricity output is produced by coal-fired power stations.

China's power consumption reached 397.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in August, up 14.69 percent year on year, according to the NEA statistics released this month.

China's HSR, urban rail, and subway/metro construction

There are three different types of rail construction occurring in China.

1. The most prestigious and expensive are the eye-catching 350 km/h inter-city high-speed rail (i.e HSR).

2. Next, China is building above-ground urban rail in her major cities. This is exemplified by the Beijing urban rail (e.g. Changping line that is currently undergoing trial runs; maximum speed of 100 km/h).

3. Finally, China is building subways under her major cities to expedite the intra-city transportation of passengers. The following map shows the existing, currently-under-construction, and planned "light rail and subway systems" for China's major cities.





Subway line set to open in Northeast China
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-09-20 13:08


Shenyang, the capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province, will open its first subway line in October. Final technical tests and adjustments are now underway. The Subway Line 1, consisting of 22 stops with a total distance of 28 kilometers, will be an east-west subway; stretching from Shenyang Economic Technology Development Zone to Liming Square. The Shenyang subway line will be the first underground line in China's northeast area. [Photo/Xinhua]


The automatic ticket-selling machines of Subway Line 1 in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning province, on Sept 20, 2010. The subway line is expected to open in early October. [Photo/Xinhua]


The automatic entrance gates of Subway Line 1 in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning province, on Sept 20, 2010. Line 1 is expected to open in early October. [Photo/Xinhua]

[Note: Thank you to "zoom" for the newslink.]