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Comment by Ericson2314 | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if it would someday be possible to build and epic rail tunnel between them, by way of Okinawa or something.

If this block is the thessalacracy or whatever, increasingly long rail tunnels—be they Switzerland–Italy, Ireland–Britain, Chile–Argentina, or whatever else—would be my preferred foundation for international relations.

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You'd first want to connect the Ryukyu islands to Kyushu via a series of several equally epic rail tunnels. Doesn't make much sense to fly/sail to Okinawa just to disembark and continue by train to Taiwan.

How feasible would that be? I would want to look at the Bering Strait not having a train between it (yet) as a sign that it's hard (and probably too expensive[0]) but a really long overseas train system would be really cool (actually, a highway would be cooler).

[0] https://www.iflscience.com/technology/china-wants-to-build-a...

The actual tunnel under the Bering Strait is only small part of the challenge as the end points of that tunnel are quite a long ways from any existing railways. There would be thousands of miles of rails to lay through difficult terrain.

And the two endpoints have had a strong dislike for each other more often than not for the last 100 years.

Shouldn'ta sold it!

Oh, hindsight! Got me again. seriously tho, that tunnel would be useless currently.

Yeah not disputing that, just pointing out the Russians might rather extend the trans-siberian railroad to their own colony.

I should add Spain–Morocco to my list.

Japan–Korea and Taiwan–Luzon also seem to make far more sense. Japan Twain Ryukyu island hopping is quite a flex, now that I check the map again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93Korea_Undersea_T...

There's not much on either side of the Bering strait, so even if feasible there's probably little demand for it.

Err.. no. It is generally considered unwise to consider boring sea tunnels along the boundaries of tectonic plates in the Ring of Fire especially considering the distance from Taipei to Naha is 641km, 30 times longer than the current record holding sea tunnel between the Hokkaido and the main land.

Also note Ireland-Britain has no tunnel.

There could be if Boris Johnson gets his way. But I rather suspect the Treasury won't let it happen. They are notorious skinflints.

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