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this is where the Pearl River meets the
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South China Sea to get from here Hong
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Kong to either of these places maau u
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high you could connect some trains or
00:00:09
Ferry for about 70 to 90 minutes at a
00:00:11
cost of about 181 AK about 25 bucks or
00:00:15
hear me out you could save 15 minutes
00:00:17
and five bucks by driving across this
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bridge assuming you hold at least two
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driver's licenses two to three different
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insurance policies and a near impossible
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to get Crossing permits at least all of
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which begs the question why would you
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ever d across this bridge and the bigger
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question why would you build this bridge
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and while both of these questions seem
00:00:35
simple I wouldn't and I wouldn't they're
00:00:38
pretty haunt topics but before we get
00:00:40
into why let's meet the Hong Kong zuo
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High maau Bridge the 18.8 billion or 127
00:00:47
billion wand project that won this
00:00:49
week's title of infrastructure project
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so absurd that I think they just built
00:00:53
it so I could make a video look at this
00:00:55
thing 12 km/ 72 M of Road linking it to
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Hong Kong just shy of 30 km/ 182 M of
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the main bridge and 13.4 km/ I'm tired
00:01:04
of conversions it's a bit longer than
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the first part linking it to zai between
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these two artificial Islands it goes
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underwater tunnel mode for about 6 and 1
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12 km so as to not be in the way of the
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port of guango shipping lanes or
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anything going on at Hong Kong
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International Airport which is right
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over here it's one of the longest
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bridges in the world estimated to have
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been built with enough concrete to make
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22 Chrysler buildings and enough steel
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to make 60 Eiffel Towers Ooh La La it
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costs 18 .8 billion over 9 years $1.5
00:01:32
billion over budget and 2 years behind
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schedule but fear not for while a pain
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to build it's also a pain to use see as
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you likely know Hong Kong and maau are
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special administrative regions of China
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operating under the one country 2
00:01:46
systems policy that gives them their own
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governments laws economic policies trade
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relations and a bunch of other stuff all
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of which makes a bridge between all
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three pretty complicated for starters
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cars in mainland China drive on the
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right side of the road while car in Hong
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Kong due to it being a former British
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colony drive on the left maau rocks at
00:02:04
Lefty style too even though they were a
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Portuguese colony and even though
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Portugal switched to the right side in
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the 1920s but even though both these
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places drive on the left the whole part
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of the bridge is in Mainland China's
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territorial Waters so you have to drive
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it on the right meaning if you're
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driving from Hong Kong to maau U High I
00:02:21
assume to visit the world's largest
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aquarium you have to go through these
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special viaducts that seamlessly switch
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you over from being on the left to being
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on the right you also have to clear
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immigration twice once on either side of
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the bridge which is a pain but not as
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big of a pain as what's coming for you
00:02:36
if your car breaks down if you break
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down here the Hong Kong police will get
00:02:41
you towed somewhere safe but you need to
00:02:42
be ready to get yourself towed all the
00:02:44
way out of there same deal in the tunnel
00:02:46
but instead of the Police pulling you
00:02:47
out it'll be the tunnel's operating
00:02:49
company same on the bridge but there the
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bridge Authority tows you to the Eastern
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artificial Island before you're on your
00:02:54
own unfortunately if you break down in
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any of these places there's a good
00:02:59
chance your car will need to be towed
00:03:00
across the borders between Hong Kong
00:03:02
maau and mainland China so the
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government recommends you travel with
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contact info for tow companies willing
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to deal with all that before you begin
00:03:08
to cross the bridge that is assuming you
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get the opportunity to begin to cross
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the bridge because like I said before
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doing it in your own car takes a
00:03:17
mountain of paperwork let's start with
00:03:19
the car insurance you need policies in
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Hong Kong maau and Mainland China even
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if you're only going from Hong Kong to
00:03:26
Macau since while you're on the bridge
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whoopsie you're in China
00:03:30
along with being triple insured you need
00:03:32
a valid driver's license in both Hong
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Kong and Mainland China if you have all
00:03:37
that you might qualify for a long-term
00:03:39
permit to drive your car from Hong Kong
00:03:40
toai as you wish there aren't many
00:03:43
available but hey someone has to get
00:03:44
them and the rest of the qualifications
00:03:46
are super chill and simple you just need
00:03:48
to have paid over a 100,000 W like
00:03:50
15,000 bucks in taxes to Mainline China
00:03:53
or you can work at a quote recognized
00:03:55
high-tech Enterprise or you can have
00:03:56
donated over 5 million W to some type of
00:03:59
mainland charity or be a member of
00:04:01
either the national people's Congress or
00:04:03
the Chinese people's political
00:04:04
consultive conference which is let me
00:04:06
check a total of just under 300 people
00:04:08
in Hong Kong so yes as long as you have
00:04:11
three insurance policies two licenses
00:04:13
one of that menu of political or
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financial connections to Mainland China
00:04:16
and a partridge and a pair of tree you
00:04:18
just might get a long-term permit
00:04:20
depending on your residency status of
00:04:21
course now there are a bunch of
00:04:23
different types of permits and some low
00:04:24
daily quota for cars allowed to cross
00:04:26
without one but to give you a broad
00:04:27
sense of how few people get to cross
00:04:29
when they created a program in 2023 to
00:04:31
exempt Northbound cars from Hong Kong
00:04:33
from paying customs duties 17,000 people
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applied for the permit and only 1,600
00:04:39
got it that's a lower acceptance rate
00:04:41
than Berkeley of course there are other
00:04:43
ways across the bridge namely a bunch of
00:04:45
bus lines but they drop you 30 minutes
00:04:47
away from the city center in Hong Kong
00:04:49
and 20 minutes from the iconic lisbo
00:04:51
Casino in maau why not just take the
00:04:53
fairy that as it turns out is what most
00:04:56
people seem to do in 2019 just over 1
00:04:59
and a half million Vehicles cross the
00:05:00
bridge for an average of less than 4,200
00:05:03
a day for comparison in 2022 the bridge
00:05:06
from Denmark to Sweden saw over 18,000
00:05:09
vehicles per day for more comparison the
00:05:11
ferry route between Hong Kong and
00:05:13
mallister is over 15,000 people a day a
00:05:15
number that according to this
00:05:17
publication indicates that the route is
00:05:19
quote languishing so either the bridge
00:05:21
is languishing or there is some serious
00:05:23
car pooling going on all of which brings
00:05:25
us back to the question why build this
00:05:27
just because you have a beef with pink
00:05:28
dolphins and want to s a bridge in their
00:05:30
house well for one reason the mainland
00:05:32
Chinese government has long envisioned
00:05:34
that this whole place will become one
00:05:36
big economic Hub called the greater Bay
00:05:39
Area Eat Your Heart Out San Francisco
00:05:41
United by infrastructure projects it
00:05:43
also does reduce travel times by Road
00:05:45
between some locations for example
00:05:47
getting from Hong Kong's airport to juai
00:05:49
went from being a nearly 5-hour drive to
00:05:51
a 45-minute one and of course big
00:05:53
projects can create their own demand
00:05:55
sort of a Field of Dreams effect where
00:05:57
you build it and the people are like huh
00:05:59
I work in Hong Kong but now I can keep
00:06:01
my job and live closer to the aquarium
00:06:03
not to mention that traffic is always
00:06:04
really light which is so nice now all
00:06:07
that's what Hong Kong Mau High Bridge
00:06:09
stands would say but what about the
00:06:11
haters well they might note that demand
00:06:13
for travel between these two cities is
00:06:14
already served by existing Land Air and
00:06:16
ceilings or that using a bridge is so
00:06:19
inconvenient it's not worth it for the
00:06:20
people it's supposed to serve or that it
00:06:22
was a huge oversight to not include rail
00:06:24
on this bridge if they wanted more
00:06:25
people to use it haters might also note
00:06:27
that this along with the highspeed rail
00:06:29
length that between Hong Kong and
00:06:30
Mainland China around the same time is a
00:06:32
physical encroachment from the Chinese
00:06:33
government blurring the border between
00:06:35
mainland China and the special
00:06:36
administrative regions after all the
00:06:38
highspeed Rail Link brought Mainland
00:06:40
Security Forces to Hong Kong since
00:06:42
they're stationed at the well station
00:06:44
all told this thing is an impressive
00:06:46
feed of engineering sure but above that
00:06:48
freakishly expensive and nearly useless
00:06:50
to the people it's exstensively for and
00:06:52
I don't know I feel like if you're going
00:06:54
to do something impressive expensive and
00:06:55
useless you may as well just build those
00:06:57
60 Eiffel Towers
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and while other people are blowing money
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on 60 Eiffel Towers how about you wisely
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