Constructors successfully completed boring a tunnel across the Yellow River in east China's Shandong Province on Sunday.
Located in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong, the 5.75 km tunnel is set to open to traffic in the latter half of next year, which will reduce the Yellow River crossing time to just five minutes.
Constructed by using a "Shanhe" shield machine with a 17.5-meter excavation diameter, this double-deck, two-way, six-lane tunnel stands as the world's largest-diameter underwater tunnel completed by a shield tunneling machine.
The complex geological conditions in the region, coupled with stringent subsidence control requirements during the tunneling process, presented significant challenges for the construction team.
"We overcame technical challenges such as controlling embankment subsidence when crossing the perched river and implemented green and efficient treatment of large amounts of mud, achieving rapid and safe excavation at a speed of up to 18 meters per day," said Zhou Xiang, on-site manager of the tunnel project.
Tunneling through the perched river with such a large tunneling machine also presented extremely high demands for precise tunneling control and machine reliability.
"We equipped the machine with a pressurized cutter head featuring a larger opening and installed additional flushing pipelines at the center of the cutter head to effectively prevent clogging issues. An intelligent system was also integrated to provide the machine with a 'smart brain', enabling it to achieve full-process perception, early warning, and intelligent decision-making during tunneling. This ensures its safe and efficient passage under the Yellow River," said Wang Xianguo, chief shielding machine operator of the project.
The Yellow River, China's second-largest river after the Yangtze, is known as the country's "Mother River" and the cradle of Chinese civilization.
Boring of tunnel across Yellow River completed in China's Shandong
International guests who have dedicated their lives to historical truth joined China's 12th national memorial event honoring the hundreds of thousands of victims killed by Japanese troops in the Nanjing Massacre during World War II.
The memorial was held on Saturday at the public square of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. China's national flag was flown at half-mast in the presence the crowd that included survivors of the massacre, local students, and international guests.
In one of the most barbaric episodes during WWII, the Nanjing Massacre took place when Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital Nanjing on Dec 13, 1937. Over the course of six weeks, they proceeded to kill approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers.
Joining the crowd was Christoph Reinhardt, the great-grandson of John Rabe (1882-1950) who was then a representative of German conglomerate Siemens in the war-ravaged Nanjing. During the Nanjing Massacre, Rabe set up an international safety zone with other foreigners, and they together saved the lives of around 250,000 Chinese people between 1937 and 1938 from the Japanese invaders.
Throughout the massacre, Rabe continued to keep a diary. To this day, all his pages remain one of the most comprehensive historical records of the atrocities committed by the Japanese aggressors.
Sayoko Yamauchi, who was also in the crowd of mourners, arrived in Nanjing on Friday from Japan's Osaka to attend Saturday's ceremony, just as she has done almost every year since China designated Dec 13 as the National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre in 2014.
Yamauchi's grandfather was one of the Japanese soldiers who invaded Nanjing in January 1938. However, since first setting foot in Nanjing in 1987, she has dedicated herself to uncovering and spreading the truth about Japan's history of aggression and enlightening the Japanese public about their country's wartime atrocities.
In 2014, ahead of China's first National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, Yamauchi, along with 10 other individuals, received an award for her special contribution to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
By attending the grand memorial event, Reinhardt and Yamauchi both said they hope to convey a message of remembering history and cherishing peace.
"This is my fifth visit to China, and Nanjing, and the third times I visited the ceremony. I have a wish that these survivors survive again and again and again. But my other wish is that the families of the survivors, that they transport the information, the right intention like their ancestors, because anyone must hold a hand (during) this remembering," Reinhardt told China Central Television (CCTV) in an interview before the event began on Saturday.
"Our delegation is on its 20th visit to China, coming to Nanjing to express our heartfelt condolences to those who perished 88 years ago, to remember this history, and to reflect on what we can do for a new future. That's why we are here," Yamauchi told CCTV on board the bus that took her to a local hotel in Nanjing on Friday evening.
Int'l guests call for remembering history at China's national event honoring Nanjing Massacre victims
