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Why China Is so Good at Building Railways

Wendover Productions · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Transit, cities & urban planningGeopolitics & foreign policyCivil engineering & construction

What it is

A Wendover Productions explainer on how China built the world's largest high-speed rail network so quickly and why its rail strategy differs from America's. It covers politics, social benefits and the economics of unprofitable lines.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it as the go-to short video when threads compare Chinese and US rail and infrastructure.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2018, last 2021

What HN commenters said

  1. “Please, I urge you to watch this.”

    Thorough explanation of why rail differs between China and America

    WilliamEdward, 2019-10 · Strong recommendation · in “China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains”

  2. “Wendover had a good video about China's rail network a while ago.”

    Why China builds unprofitable rail: airspace, politics, social benefits

    lunchbreak, 2018-12 · Recommendation · in “As the U.S. fantasizes, the rest of the world builds new transport system (2017)”

  3. “Here's a good video summarizing what China has done with high speed rail in a little over a decade”

    Summary of China's decade of high speed rail

    Fricken, 2018-12 · Recommendation · in “As the U.S. fantasizes, the rest of the world builds new transport system (2017)”

  4. “also explains a lot about how things have changed recently to make this migration even more possible in China.”

    Explains China's rail buildout enabling mass migration

    s1mon, 2019-02 · Recommendation · in “Chinese New Year Is World’s Biggest Human Migration”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: china, railways, infrastructure, transportation, public policy

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