The People’s Republic of China has had to fight a PR battle over the last several decades, for good reason. A communist state since 1949 known for frequently flexing its authoritarian muscles on its 1.2 billion citizens, China has recently been making headlines for a planned system that will track and rank both the social and economic interactions of anyone that calls the country home.
A recent report published through the state run Xinhua News Agency brags of a China united in the construction of a railway station in the Fujian Province for the work-in-progress Nanlong Railway, due for completion later this year. The article details how 1,500 workers were able to link three major existing railways – Ganlong, Ganruilong and Zhanglong – with the Nanlong line, and do it in just under nine hours.
This railway is hoped, amongst other things, to help solve traffic issues on China’s over-crowded roads. Chinese workers are used to long hours on the job, and studies show they average upwards of 500 more hours on the work clock yearly compared to their U.S. counterparts. When you’re living in a country publicizing how it can build entire railway networks overnight, it’s not surprising to see the difference in numbers.
Story by Jay Moon
