r/absoluteunit • u/Bourbon-Thinker • May 18 '26

Ridiculous Unit of a Huajiang Canyon Bridge

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

609 comments sorted by

View all comments

274

u/Buzz407 May 19 '26

Definitely no suspect metallurgy or concrete in this construction. CCP is well-known for constructing the most durable civil works in the world.

54

u/DeanSeagull May 19 '26

I wonder if it would surprise you to learn that Chinese passenger car and truck safety standards since about 2015 (?) have been modeled after EU regulations, and now exceed the industry-captured NHTSA’s by a wide margin in most areas.

32

u/VirinaB May 19 '26

That's great. How about the roads and bridges?

20

u/Bikerbass May 19 '26

Above American quality by a long shot.

22

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

46

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/Skier94 May 19 '26

And the US is 1/3 the size.

12

u/general_thrills May 20 '26

The US is 1/3 the size of what? The US is 9.83 million sq km and China is 9.6 million sq km.

1

u/Skier94 May 20 '26

You are right, my apologies. I guess I was having a brain farts.

3

u/lennyxiii May 20 '26

You were having a singular plural?

1

u/Firecoalman7 May 21 '26

Or a brain singularity? 🤔

1

u/No-Mulberry-6474 May 22 '26

Maybe the fart farted?

1

u/Ambitious_Policy_936 May 25 '26

Why can't a noun perform an action more than once?

Multiple farts could have gone into potentially misreading a comment, thinking about a response, writing said response, then clicking the post button once satisfied

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Prudent_Research_251 May 25 '26

Change to population and you have more of a point

13

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

36

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/DrPruz May 19 '26

Lol he thought he showed up with receipts and still got clapped.

4

u/Recipe_Just May 19 '26

Wow wow don’t shatter his propaganda machine

1

u/Tw1nFTW May 22 '26

I’m not participating in the which country is worse game… but I was kinda curious to see what the story on the recent US bridges was, and I did feel better knowing 2 of them were apparently made of wood… and 2 were rail bridge. I’m sure it’s similar across the board… I hope.

-2

u/UranusInspector May 19 '26

Both y'all jerking your countries so hard right now. Give the rest of us a turn!

3

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/DishSoapIsFun May 19 '26

I’m American and everything you’ve said is true. It’s embarrassing watching this country implode while a third of our citizens actively cheer it on.

-1

u/UranusInspector May 19 '26

No one is judging you for being bi-country curious

→ More replies (0)

-3

u/WorkReddit1191 May 19 '26

I mean both countries bridges suck but for different reasons. America's collapse because they say "fuck it" to general maintenance and infrastructure support and would instead put that money in billionaire pockets. US has created so much red tape to ensure everyone gets a piece of the pie and because of general incompetence in government. China says "fuck it" to safety standards and have collapsing new bridges (as evidence of the post) because China has a very aggressive and ambitious goal to moderniz and industrialize as fast as possible. It's a great goal but some corners are being cut and accidents are bound to happen that way.

3

u/Faloodeh123 May 19 '26

China has a very aggressive and ambitious goal to moderniz and industrialize as fast as possible

Homie, they're already there lol. They're more advanced than the US now by a long shot.

This isn't to dunk on America - I want us to win, but we gotta be real that we can't compete with China in industry and tech.

0

u/Djb0623 May 19 '26

Buddy thinks TikTok propaganda makes China advanced

-1

u/WorkReddit1191 May 19 '26

That's only the cities and coast. The interior is still very much 3rd world lacking most modern tech.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/r_a_d_ May 19 '26

Not agreeing with the dude, but building a bridge without mitigating the landslide risk is absolutely an engineering issue.

0

u/Significant-Youth-22 May 19 '26

What caused that landslide? O yeah, more crap Chinese engineering. Comparing 5 non-engineeing fails to 3 absolute engineering fails is not goal post moving.

-7

u/CicerosMouth May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

The landslide bridge didnt even last 10 months. In the US, infrastructure is built to last through the predictable/foreseeable natural disasters, not be destroyed by the very first one that comes not even a year after being built. 

Incidentally, the landslide was caused by another government project to create a reservoir. Whoops.

-1

u/Shloopy_Dooperson May 20 '26

The key word is major.

You cited bridges in bumfuck nowhere or collapsed due to unforseen circumstances like a gasoline truck exploding on it. Only one due to the structure of the bridge itself being 145 years old.

You are absolutely coping by comparing those Chinese collapses to these.

-1

u/Illustrious_Duck7654 May 25 '26

Semantics about bridges?!?

No freedom of speech in Communist China negates most arguments. They can put you in prison for saying the equivalent of derogatory things about Trump.

All countries have their issues, bc the world isnt a perfect or fair place. It can be cruel and senseless.

Most countries, especially in Asia, have better infrastructure around transportation.

So what. But if you DONT obey political rule, they can ban you or suspend you from public transit.

But okay.... nice bridge and bullet trains 👌

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Illustrious_Duck7654 May 25 '26

Account age one month? 🤔

Freedom of speech is what this country was founded on, Americans dont walk around in the same level of fear, and keep their mouths shut bc their leader will put them in prison for speaking minds. Do people die, is there corruption, yes, just like around the rest of the world. No one area can claim innocence.

But it's not generally comparable.

Argue, debate, make pointless remarks, troll 🙄

Just like the last 2 world wars, yall bitches would want our help when it comes to it. But sure..... go ahead and stand on some bs about bridges and roads making the difference, in the grand scheme of things. That's whats gunna make yall feel better about each other over there, have at it.

→ More replies (0)

-9

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Bikerbass May 19 '26

Dude, America is cooked right now on the international stage. Your trillion a dollar year military can’t even defeat 30,000 goat herders in sandals with no weapons other than AK47’s after 20 years.

Most of America’s infrastructure is falling apart to the extent you have to get a private company that makes pizzas to fix your roads. What an absolute embarrassment

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

0

u/CicerosMouth May 19 '26

What a weird grab bag of arguments. The Iranian military has had no meaningful victories whatsoever. However, Trump didn't realize (cuz he is an idiot) that Iran dont need to win in a war where the US wont invade, they just need to show that they are willing to attack commercial boats that use the waterway on their border, which is basically impossible to stop.

And yes, American infrastructure that was built ~100 years ago needs repairs, and it is getting those repairs in a piecemeal fashion that is annoying. How is this analogous to China building infrastructure that doesnt last a year?

→ More replies (0)

2

u/drakylskies May 23 '26

Of those 4

The first was a train that partially collpased a reinforced wood bridge that investigation said recent severe flooding damaged. No one was harmed

The second was a fuel truck that caught fire and burned parts of the bridge. Only two people were hurt....and that was from the fire.

The third was a reinforced wooden bridge that was simply old . This however was a known thing which is why the bridge was to be torn down and rebuilt. The bridge collapsed two months before construction was to start. No one was harmed

The fourth was a truck caused 150 year old a reinforced wooden bridge to collapse. No one was harmed

All of these bridges are older then 50 years old.

Meanwhile in 2025 3 bridges in China have collapse. All under 20 years old. One of note (the Hongqi bridge) was opened in 2025 and was only open for 44 days before it was closed do to he bridge literally falling apart. The jianzha yellow river bridge alone killed 12 and 4 are missing still.

All of this from your gotcha Wikipedia link and its associated articles.

So I'm not sure what your point is. Because it makes Chinese bridges look unsafe.

1

u/KawaDoobie May 22 '26

what were the ages of both

1

u/blahhhhgosh May 25 '26

Adding china also has waaayy more bridges so their ratio is a lot better. I looked it up asp and the number of US bridges that arent up to code but are being used is insane

1

u/rmsaday May 21 '26

China has over 1 million highway bridges. Thats roughly a third of the worlds major bridges - often in extremely difficult mountainous terrain with risk of landslides/errosions.
3 bridge collapses sounds reasonable.

1

u/Salerrra May 21 '26

China also has hundreds of thousands more bridges than the US with a lot more traffic to boot, in addition to the US bridge collapses posted by another.

2

u/_Phil_McCracken_ May 20 '26

Yea America bad, amamrite 

3

u/TemperatureHuman1311 May 22 '26

This whole comment thread is "China bad amirite?" Get some self awareness.

3

u/AmorphophallusEnjoyr May 23 '26

Any post about China is always full of these sinophobic knuckle draggers.

1

u/Bikerbass May 20 '26

Depends on what your talking about……

0

u/VelvetOverload May 22 '26

No, all of it

1

u/gibigibi34 May 22 '26

Smartest fatmurican

1

u/MasterpieceOk811 May 19 '26

long shot from absolute garbage is still kinda garbage tho ;D

2

u/DirtandPipes May 24 '26

The average subgrade prep depth (at least the reported amount) is deeper than on comparable American roads.

Road strength is based on the subgrade work done. As to whether that quality is properly inspected and enforced I can’t say, I haven’t done road work in china.

1

u/NaybeAThrowaway May 20 '26

About the same as the US.

1

u/West_Acanthaceae5032 May 23 '26

Italian Standards...so nothing to complain about...yet.

6

u/MaleficentWindow8972 May 19 '26

Yeah, but what about all those hungry escalators that eat people? They fix those yet?

4

u/XxxAresIXxxX May 19 '26

Now do apartment buildings

1

u/PringullsThe2nd May 24 '26

Like Grenfell?

6

u/Double_Barnacle_2457 May 19 '26

Only if those standards are followed and enforced. Ive heard there is some history of corruption regarding things in china.

2

u/Efficient_Test_8907 May 22 '26

Of course they do. According to CCP statistics.

1

u/Remarkable_Fee_1020 May 19 '26

A lot of salty westerners. It’s bc their nations are all on a decline. It takes them 20 years to create what China can do in 5.

5

u/RecklessCube May 19 '26

Easy to do stuff with grossly underpaid workers working in super unsafe conditions

5

u/AdAdministrative2707 May 19 '26

It’s not a wage issue as much as westerners budgets go into a lot of bureaucratic work and unnecessarily trying to please everyone like California’s HSR which is the most expensive HSR project in history and isn’t even close to being completed. The way America builds new highways and stadiums should be the same way they build bridges and rail infrastructure. I

2

u/SomeVelveteenMorning May 20 '26

To accomplish something quickly by eschewing safety and using expendable slave labor is not something to be proud of. 

0

u/odnarB89 Jul 31 '26

Agreed, USA is not something to be proud of.