It may already seem like a common feature in science fiction films but it appears China is considering plans to build a high-speed rail line that would cross hemispheres and travel from Asia to North America, according to the Beijing Times.
The proposed train line has the potential to create a contiguous link between China and Vancouver.
In a column written earlier this month for the Beijing Times, Chinese rail expert Wang Mengshu of the Chinese Academy of Engineering said the government potentially wants to build a high-speed train travelling from China to Russia before going through a tunnel in the Bering Strait that would connect to Alaska 82 kilometres away.
From there, it would go through Canada and eventually connect to the East Coast of the United States.
In an interview with Russia’s RIA Novosti news outlet, Alaskan businessman Fyodor Soloview, who has been pushing for a tunnel in the Bering Strait since the 1990s, said the burrowing project would cost about $35 billion. He added the total project would amount to at least $2 trillion.
But American rail expert Hal Cooper told RIA Novosti China could import three million barrels of oil a day from Alberta if the project was built. That could be enough to justify the rail in the eyes of Beijing and Ottawa.
