The newly built Shanghai World Financial Center stands taller than other high-rises near the Huangpu River.

PROJECTS KEEP CHINA MOVING PROJECTS KEEP CHINA MOVING A glance at some of China's transportation projects: Rail The world's fastest bullet train, which can go up to 236 mph, is being developed to cut the journey between Beijing and Shanghai by two-thirds to four hours. The 808-mile trip is roughly the distance from New York to Chicago. The $182 billion spending boom from 2006 to 2010 will increase the rail network to 58,906 miles. Subways are being built in 15 cities 170 mass transit systems could be built by 2025. Airports China will spend $62 billion on 97 new airports by 2020, when the government hopes that eight of 10 residents will live within 60 miles of an airport. Last month, workers finished the runway at an airport that is 2.4 miles above sea level, at Yushu on the Tibet-Qinghai plateau. A higher airport, at Gunsa in western Tibet, 2.6 miles high, will open as the Himalayan region's fourth civil airport in 2010. Roads China is building at least 3,107 miles of expressways this year, taking the national total to almost 37,300 miles, second only to the USA. The 2020 target is 52,817 miles. The ambitious plans, currently only on the drawing board, include an expressway over the mountains to Tibet and another by undersea tunnel to Taiwan. Sources: Chinese Ministry of Railways, Chinese Ministry of Construction, General Administration of Civil Aviation, China Daily, Xinhua News Agency and McKinsey Global Institute Beijing building goes beyond Olympics BEIJING  The Olympic Games are over, leaving Beijing with stunning structures such as the Bird's Nest stadium and multiple new subway lines, but one of the greatest building booms in history is far from finished. Despite the global economic slowdown, the Chinese government is steaming ahead with large-scale projects to turn this rural nation into an urban, industrial powerhouse. The projects range from the world's fastest train and the world's largest Ferris wheel to legions of skyscrapers and thousands of miles of highways. China "is spending massive amounts on infrastructure," says Stephen Green, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai. Fixed-asset investment, a major pillar of the national economy, stands at 45% of the gross domestic product — a "world-record-breaking number," Green says. In comparison, Korea, Japan and Singapore never broke 40% when they were developing at their fastest pace, Green says. Basis for growth The results are hard to miss. "When you travel around China, you see new airports being built, new skyscrapers going up and a lot of new multilane roads, often very empty, but the U.S. interstate highways were empty, too, at first," Green says. "They can provide a solid basis for long-term growth." The country's tallest building, the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, opened at the end of August in the metropolitan area of more than 20 million people that was already crowded with skyscrapers. By 2025, an additional 5 million buildings — including up to 50,000 skyscrapers, or the equivalent of 10 New York Cities — could be built in China, the McKinsey Global Institute, a U.S. consulting firm, predicted in a March report. China could end up with as many as 221 cities that each have a population above 1 million, as a result of hundreds of millions of farmers moving to urban areas. That's good news for U.S. firms such as Caterpillar, a leading maker of construction equipment, which expects a record $2 billion in sales in China this year. China's construction boom "is unequaled by anywhere else in the world," says Martin Bryant, director of WesTrac, the Caterpillar dealer for northern China. "Growth will continue for at least the next two years. There will not be a post-Olympic slowdown in construction, as there is still capital to be invested" in the country's five-year plan for 2006-2010, Bryant says. China is packing into decades what the West took centuries to achieve, says Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing University of Technology. He says the effort is driven by the government's strong grip on the economy, despite three decades of capitalist-style changes. "Just 62 miles from Beijing, you can visit very poor villages, so there is clearly a great need for investment in infrastructure," Hu says. China's communist government enjoys another advantage, he says. In the USA or India, "the democratic system can often bring greater costs and delays to projects. China does not face this trouble. But a totalitarian system also has costs, and the consequences can be more serious," Hu says, referring to shoddy construction of schools that collapsed in an earthquake in May. Largest Ferris wheel One eye-catching Beijing project to start next year is being billed as the world's largest Ferris wheel — 682 feet tall when it opens in 2010. The $290 million privately funded venture would dwarf the famous London Eye (443 feet high) and the original wheel (262 feet) built by George Ferris for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. "On a good clear day, you'll see the Great Wall and the Western Hills" during the 30-minute "flight" in one of 48 air-conditioned capsules, says the Beijing Great Wheel's marketing manager Gerald Ang. "Unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often in Beijing," he says, referring to the city's smog. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more