Forgive me! This China article has been sitting in my “silly pile,” and I have not been silly or drunk enough to write on it. But, having tipped a near reservoir of cheap red wine down my throat, to drown my sorrows, now I am ready:
  https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/beijing-to-the-us-by-train-china-outlines-plans-to-connect-world-by-high-speed-rail-network-9342749.html

“China has outlined its plan to connect the world by high-speed rail, including an underwater link to the US running a total 13,000km. The ‘China to Russia plus the United States’ line proposed by the Chinese Academy of Engineering would start in the north east of China, travel up through Siberia, across the Bering Strait to Alaska and down through Canada before reaching the contiguous US, The Beijing Times reports. Other planned lines - construction of which has reportedly began in China - are a link to London via Paris, Berlin and Moscow, along with a second route to Europe following the silk road to reach as far as Germany via Iran and Turkey. The international legs of the lines are currently under negotiation, the state ran paper said.”

     My first thought was: what happens when war breaks out/ it would be dead easy to blow this thing up, maybe by the Americans sending a missile up its spout. Anyway, digging a tunnel around the planet is the sort of fantasy mega-project that all rising stars propose, before their fall. Just imagine the mountain of debt that will be created building the thing. Do the people who think up these sorts of crazy things, have alcohol and drug problems? Just wondering.