James Kynge

And that's not the only big bridge in China.

In fact, eight of the 10 highest bridges in the world are all in China.

Of course, China has the longest high-speed rail network in the world with

45,000 kilometers of track.

So, you know, China's got lots of huge things.

And I think it's quite interesting to think about why.

One thing we can say for certain is that this goes right back into Chinese history.

Of course, there's the Great Wall of China that was built more than 2,000 years ago or more.

And Tiananmen Square,

In the heart of Beijing, that's 100 acres in size.

That makes it five times larger than Red Square in Moscow.

The Free Gorges Dam, that's the biggest dam in the world.

I would say that really, I don't know about in the past, but certainly now, I'd say that some of this gigantism owes its heritage to China's self-image, an image of itself

as a civilization at the center of the world, a really consequential player.

And I think this filters through into, I don't know, central government wanting to build big things, make big statements, and local governments too.

What's your sense of that, Alice?

encapsulate the awesomeness and the grandeur and the size of of china in any case i think it looks now as if the government is wanting to curb some of the excesses of this sort of wave of gigantism um it turns out that a there is a proposed uh tower in wuhan city which is supposed to be one kilometers tall that would make it the tallest building in the world overtaking

the Burj Khalifa, which is that huge building in Dubai.

The Burj Khalifa, just for your reference, is 828 meters tall or 2,717 feet.

But this one, if it was built, the one in Wuhan, would be a full kilometer tall.