China Railway Engineering Corporation signed on May 29 a colossal US$10 billion contract launching a man-made island in the sea with the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (Dubai), the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The man-made island, beamed by the Prince of United Arab Emirate as "Palm Island", is a private investment by the prince himself, the daily reported. It will be 4 kilometers from coast, and is planned to occupy a sea area of 160,000 square kilometers.

The prince planned to build the Palm Island into a world-famed star project, which could be visible from the moon, following the two historical monuments the Pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China, the newspaper said.

The will-be island is the first wholesale engineering project contracted by a Chinese firm in the Middle East region, after out-performing other 12 European and American competitors in a bid.

The Palm Island will be made up of a trunk building, 17 branches and a crescent dyke, which will be connected with the mainland by an over-sea bridge. The whole construction, once completed, looks like a big palm, the paper said.

The dyke will be 150 meters in width and 10,000 meters in length, the trunk will be 350 meters wide and 4,000 meters long, and each branch will be 75 meters wide and 2,000 meters long. It's estimated that the project will need 3.03 million cubic meters of rock and 68 million cubic meter of sand in order to stand above the sea.

The first phase of the project, to fill the sea with rocks and sand, will take two years, the newspaper said.

(chinadaily.com.cn 05/30/2001)