BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China has floated long-term plans for what would be one of the new wonders of the world -- a highway linking it with arch foe Taiwan, an island about 200 km (125 miles) offshore.
Communications Minister Zhang Chunxian said China would invest two trillion yuan ($241.7 billion) on building 34 highways over 20 to 30 years, with one linking the mainland to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, an island Beijing considers a breakaway province.
"Under the 85,000-km (53,000-mile) highway plan, there will be a special corridor linking the mainland to Taipei," he told a news conference.
Asked how this architectural feat could be accomplished, he said: "Taipei could be linked by building a tunnel or something else."
But he hinted that a section of the "highway" could involve ships transporting people and vehicles after the island lifts a decades-old ban on shipping links.
Any bridge or tunnel would be a huge leap of imagination, technology and political will. It would also have to withstand powerful earthquakes that rattle the region and frequent typhoons.
The world's longest bridge is the Second Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, at 38.4 km (24 miles), according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was completed in 1969.
Japan has the world's longest undersea tunnel. The 54-km Seikan tunnel links the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido and started operating in 1988 after more than two decades of construction.
China and Taiwan have had no official contacts since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, but trade and tourism have flourished in recent years.
