[Video Essay] Mobile City

Title: Mobile City
Site: Bridge
Director: Zhou Yingqi
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/pZOsfNtbpyo

As one of the first cities from China which had directly confronted the lethal corona virus on a massive scale, Wuhan had faced many difficulties across multiple dimensions that were unforeseen and thus placed major challenges against this city and its vulnerable residents. However, due to its high abundance and availability of constructed bridges of good build quality, this city was enabled to withstand the crisis effectively as its bridges helped to deliver ample benefits economically, socially, and financially for city itself. For the purposes of this report, it will explore the measurable benefits received by Wuhan due to its possession of many bridges.

First of all, bridges act as critical parts of a region or area’s overall infrastructure, making it reachable to ship and exchange raw materials plus finished goods to plants, factories, warehouses, business suppliers, wholesalers or distributors, retail stores, as well as end buyers. (Zhou, 2019) Bridges encourage more traveling and tourism for consumers to effectively buy goods and services within their local communities and elsewhere. Should a bridge closes or shuts down, economic activities subsequently slow down or even shift to an entire halting. These stated advantages were clearly associated with Wuhan as the city was still able to carry out extensive economical or commercial activities despite shutting down of many public facilities and social distancing measures caused by the virus. (Liu, 2020)

Second, bridges may boost overall cash flows should they integrate and link two or more places which complement and sustain one another economically. (Zhou, 2020) It can inflict a powerful influence when a region holds a major or significant funds supply is linked to one which contains goods or products to sell or employees who need employment. The same holds valid if a community owns raw materials acquires direct and unobstructed access to other places which have plants able to transform them onto salable commodities. Wuhan was able to, through its ample bridges, quickly make necessary exchanges of goods especially medical supplies or vaccinations with other places so not only was its economical selling and buying activities maintained as normal but also permitted this city’s people to receive all needed, urgent medical supplies on time delivered from other parts of the country. (Xie, 2021) Otherwise, this city’s commerce trades and direct access to life saving medicines would be halted, bringing huge human and economical losses.

Moreover, establishment of bridges also aid the local economies due to presence of earned salaries given to construction staff or repair men. As bridges of all sizes and quality equally demand normal cleaning and maintenance operations. Bridge staff would then contribute such funds back to local communities by paying and offering for taxes while buying more locally made products as well as services. (Ansar, 2016) The health status of the local economy of Wuhan is thus put on a healthy life cycle where introduction of bridges provides sources of income to workers who then return these money back to society in the form of taxation or normal spending on a regular basis thus both consumers, workers, and government of Wuhan are being equally financially benefited.

As depicted, despite the temporary challenges caused by Corona virus, Wuhan was able to counter many of its obstacles by preserving itself as a socially active and economically thriving and connected city through introduction and building of bridges. Trade and exchange of goods of different categories including medical supplies were enabled to be maintained as normal for Wuhan while offering of more job positions helped to promote the local economy by giving workers with more money which they will later spend on consumption behaviors or taxes paid to government. Wuhan was also allowed to interact and trade with other cities and parties of the Chinese economy’s supply chain both locally and country wise without obstacles.

I made drawings based on the diagrams I found on the internet and I traveled almost the entire Wuhan by car to visit various bridges in Wuhan, including Wuhan Second Yangtze River Bridge, Parrot Zhou Yangtze River Bridge, and Baishazhou Yangtze River Bridge. The bridges greatly promoted the mobility of people and guaranteed the flow of goods and commodities and the prosperous development of the city. This is a great feature of the city of Wuhan, which has more than ten bridges. The bridges give new life to Wuhan, which has a lot of rivers and lakes, and rejuvenate a city that was shrouded by the gloom of the epidemic.

750 words

References

Ansar, A., Flyvbjerg, B., Budzier, A., & Lunn, D. (2016). Does infrastructure investment lead to economic growth or economic fragility? Evidence from China. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 32(3), 360–390. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26363344

Liu, W., Yue, X.-G., & Tchounwou, P. B. (2020). Response to the COVID-19 Epidemic: The Chinese Experience and Implications for Other Countries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(7), 2304. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072304

Xie, L., Yang, H., Zheng, X., Wu, Y., Lin, X., & Shen, Z. (2021). Medical resources and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) mortality rate: Evidence and implications from Hubei province in China. PLOS ONE, 16(1), e0244867. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244867

Zhou, X., & Zhang, X. (2019). Thoughts on the Development of Bridge Technology in China. Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2019.10.001

Zhou, Z., Alcalá, J., & Yepes, V. (2020). Environmental, Economic and Social Impact Assessment: Study of Bridges in China’s Five Major Economic Regions. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(1), 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010122

Zhou Yingqi 3035919793