DALIAN — The plan here seems far-fetched — a $36 billion tunnel that would run twice the length of the one under the English Channel, and bore deep into one of Asia’s active earthquake zones. When completed, it would be the world’s longest underwater tunnel, creating a rail link between two northern port cities.
大连——这是个太过离奇的规划——在亚洲最活跃的一个地震带上，深挖一条比英吉利海峡海底隧道长出一倍、造价高达360亿美元的隧道。建成后，它将成为世界上最长的水下隧道，用铁路连接中国北方两座港口城市。
Throughout China, equally ambitious projects with multibillion-dollar price tags are already underway. The world’s largest bridge. The biggest airport. The longest gas pipeline. An $80 billion effort to divert water from the south of the country, where it is abundant, to a parched section of the north, along a route that covers more than 1,500 miles.
在中国各地，造价动辄数十、上百亿美元、同样雄心勃勃的项目已经上马，比如世界最长的大桥、世界最大的机场以及世界最长的天然气输送管道。耗资800亿美元的南水北调工程绵延1500英里。
Such enormous infrastructure projects are a Chinese tradition. From the Great Wall to the Grand Canal and the Three Gorges Dam, this nation for centuries has used colossal public-works projects to showcase its engineering prowess and project its economic might.
中国有筑造此类巨型基建工程的传统。从长城到大运河再到三峡大坝，数百年来，这个国家一直用庞大的公共建设项目展示着非凡的工程技能和经济实力。
Now, as doubts emerge about the country’s three-decade boom, China’s leaders are moving even more aggressively, doubling down on mega infrastructure. In November, for instance, the powerful National Development and Reform Commission approved plans to spend nearly $115 billion on 21 supersize infrastructure projects, including new airports and high-speed rail lines
现在，随着人们对中国持续了30年的繁荣心生疑虑，该国领导人的举措反而变得愈发激进，把更多赌注投向了大型基础设施。举例来说，2014年11月，手握重权的国家发改委批复了包括新机场和新高铁在内的21个超大基建项目，总投资额接近1150亿美元。
“China has always had this history of mega projects,” says Huang Yukon, an economist and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank based in Washington. “It’s part of the blood, the culture, the nature of its society. To have an impact on the country, they’ve got to be big.”
“中国对大型项目的偏好由来已久，”经济学家、卡内基国际和平研究院(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)高级研究员黄育川(Yukon Huang)说。“它是这个社会的血脉和文化的一部分，是骨子里的东西。工程只有够大，才能对这个国家有影响。”卡内基国际和平研究院是总部设在华盛顿的一家智库。
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