--- Interview with Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Air Railway Group Co.

Our Chief Correspondent   Tan Guoqi (1933-), Chinese chess player   stringer  Wu Yanfei (1962-), novelist  Xu Shunrong

      Tang Tong, a legendary figure in the history of the world's air railroads, journalists and the general public concerned with the newPeople, as it were, noticed in news information two years ago that the man known to outsiders asThe legendary figure of "the father of new energy air-rail", I have long wanted to interview the heart, only because of the opportunity to meet failed to achieve. Recently met the company's other leaders, talking about new energy air railway in upgrading and perfecting the topic of China's modern transportation pattern, the reporter put forward to please help coordinate to see Chairman Tang for an exclusive interview. After a few appointments, are too busy because of Chairman Tang, one because many domestic cities invited to visit the air-rail landing project, a few countries in Southeast Asia invited to go to discuss air-rail settled in a country, it is difficult to have the opportunity to see each other. The night before yesterday, Chairman Tang from Shenzhen back to Sichuan, the reporter instant appointment, in yesterday morning finally met with the "new energy, the father of air-rail", when the reporter shook hands with his hello, immediately felt the chairman of the Tang is a strong aura of the people. The fast-talking, fiery chairman of the Tang has said the first voice: "I also heard about the reporter's situation, just work things, only today there is such a blank to see each other." Both sides as old acquaintances quickly into the interview topic.

Mr. Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Air Railway Group Company

     Asia News Weekly: Chairman Tang, I knew that your time is very precious, you for the development of China's new energy air-rail cause, made unremitting efforts, after nearly three years of practice, has fully proved that the significant results achieved by the Zhongtang air-rail is worthy of Chinese pride! New energy air-rail cross in front of the world, according to the reporter, domestic and foreign market demand for new energy air-rail feedback is quite strong. Then, you are out of what idea to lead your team to invest in research and development of new energy air iron this many large state-owned enterprises do not dare to easily enter the field, can you make an introduction to this?

Group photo of Chairman Tang with Chinese and foreign guests

     Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Air Railway Group: Well, first of all, I'm a person who does not put economic benefits in the first place. I choose the project has three principles, one is the market demand and no one dares to do; two is to do to do the uniqueness; three is to do to do to the extreme. I often think that a private entrepreneur to achieve real success, it is necessary to have a strong sense of social mission, sense of responsibility and a deep sense of "family and country", the world's first worry, after the world's happiness and happiness! A few years ago, in the face of the grim reality of China's traffic congestion, in order to solve the people's worries, urgent government needs, my partners and I resolutely invested heavily in the founding of the Tang air-rail group, took the lead in China's new energy suspended air-rail research and development and investment in the field of construction. To this end, Zhongtang Air Rail Group has established the corporate philosophy of "innovation-driven technology for the people and industry for the country".

     Secondly, as we all know, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and one of the prominent contradictions in the process of China's rapid economic development is the contradiction between the people's growing need for a better life and the unbalanced development of transportation resources, which urgently requires a new solution. With the acceleration of China's urbanization process and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the urban population and construction scale has expanded dramatically, and the urban traffic has been generally congested; at the same time, the number of people travelling on trips has also continued to grow, and the tourist traffic congestion is also quite serious. China's existing ground road traffic and underground rail transportation mode has been difficult to meet the needs of China's urban transportation and tourism traffic, the establishment of a variety of modes of transportation system is imperative. It is also in this context, our company organized the development of the world's first new energy air train in the2016surname NianIn September, it was put into trial operation on the 1.5-kilometer test line. Over the past two years, the new energy air-rail test line through more than 30,000 kilometers of running tests, to carry out comprehensive performance testing and validation, continuous improvement and refinement, optimization of air-rail design. At the same time, we have also completed the new energy air railway local standards "suspended monorail transportation technology standards", the development of, and now has been published by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Housing and Construction to the community, so that the new energy air railway has the basis and prerequisites for the popularization and application of the new energy air railway.At the end of 2017, the first new energy air railway tourism traffic (sightseeing) demonstration line has been started, marking the new energy air railway of our country has completely independent intellectual property rights formally put on the market.

     Asia News Weekly: Chairman Tang, after listening to your introduction, these achievements are indeed worthy of national pride and honor! Then from the viewpoint of the current international and domestic transportation needs, what is the company's mission and strategic positioning thinking? Can you talk about the considerations in this regard?

     Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Air-rail Group: Well, our strategic goal is: "Based on Ba Shu, radiating China, going to the world". In 5-8 years, we will build a new energy air-railway industry chain and "create a hundred billion enterprises and lead a trillion industry".

     In order to realize the above goal, the strategic layout of ZTT Airtrain Group is to build the central base of ZTT Airtrain Group in Chengdu. At the same time, in 3-5 years, to the east, in Chongqing to establish the "Yangtze River Economic Belt air-rail industry base" (radiation Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle); to the west, in Urumqi to establish the "North Silk Road air-rail industry base" (radiation Central Asia); to the south, in Kunming to establish the "South Silk Road air-rail industry base" (radiation). Central Asia); to the south, to establish the "South Silk Road air-rail industrial base" in Kunming (radiating Southeast Asia); to the north, to establish the "Northeast Asia air-rail industrial base" in Xiongan, Hebei; to the southeast, to establish the "Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao air-rail industrial base in Shenzhen". To the south-east, the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao air-rail industrial base" will be established in Shenzhen (radiating to Hong Kong and Macao); in the central part of the country, the "air-rail industrial base in the Yellow River Basin" will be established in Zhengzhou (radiating to the Central Plains).

     Asia News Weekly: Chairman Tang, it's so exciting to hear your strategic layout, and Zhongtang's strategic goals are so exciting!

     Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Air Railway Group: Yes, my style of doing things is to have a big picture, and there is a proverb in England"Aim at the stars to hit than aim at the treetops to hit high." Huawei Zheng Bao with prophecy of new energy air iron if you can take root in China, blossom, results, will be a big industry over ten trillion. Do so big industry, no big pattern, line!

     Newsweek Asia: Yes! But you must have been under a lot of pressure as well!

     Tang Tong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zhongtang Air Railway Group: There is no power without pressure, the greater the pressure is a kind of incentive, which is called the spirit of struggle, in the current international environment, we do not struggle, what else to talk about?"The Chinese Dream"!

     Asia News Weekly: Chairman Tang, listening to what you just said about the company's mission and strategic positioning really struck a chord. At present, the state strongly advocates"Mass Innovation and Mass Entrepreneurship". As a large private enterprise, can you talk about some ideas on enterprise innovation?

     Mr. Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Air Railway Group: Without innovation, there will be no economic growth or social progress. However, I believe that the premise of any innovation is the change of ideological concepts, there should be innovative ideas and the top-level design under the leadership of this. We have a series of innovative concepts in our research and development of new energy air-rail test.

     Our top-level planning and design contains three main innovative concepts.

     The first is the planning and design concept. The planning and design concept of the new energy air-rail has three main phrases: "grounded space development and utilization, construction of urban and rural three-dimensional complex transportation, and comprehensive utilization of resources along the route". Since the reform and opening up, China's modern transportation industry has been developing rapidly, and different types and modes of transportation have formed a well-connected modern transportation network. However, there are two major shortcomings that need to be remedied, one is the increasing conflict of right-of-way of surface plane traffic in large and medium-sized cities, and the improvement of traffic congestion phenomenon has a long way to go; the second is that most of the national trunk traffic is large-span transit traffic, and there are still spatial barriers to connecting with the provincial highway network and rural road network in the third- and fourth-tier towns and the vast rural areas. The new energy air-railway creates a uniquely advantageous transportation system through the development and utilization of grounded space, with a view to easing the nodes of the existing transportation network at all levels, making up for the shortcomings, improving traffic flow efficiency and enhancing socio-economic vitality.

     The second is the concept of comprehensive development. New energy air-rail comprehensive development concept is: layout "air-rail economy". Fully understand the nature of the big country transportation industry is "flow economy" and "experience economy". If there is a good experience, there will be consumption desire, and if there is a flow of people (logistics), there will be a flow of wealth. The appeal of "air-railway economy" is to accelerate the gathering and dispersing of people while activating the creation of new people, and the comprehensive development and utilization of advantageous resources along the air-railway area is the key to creating new people.

     Again, it is the concept of market expansion. New energy air railway market development concept is: proactive integration into the national strategy, based on the national implementation of the "Belt and Road, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, urban-rural integration, regional tourism" and other strategic background, in the new energy suspended air rail transit system market promotion, according to layout In the market promotion of new energy suspended air rail transit system, in accordance with the top-level concept of "air-rail economy", and in accordance with the superimposed development concepts such as air-rail + urban three-dimensional compound transportation, air-rail + agricultural production, air-rail + idyllic garden complex, air-rail + tourism, air-rail + leisure and vacation, air-rail + livable town, air-rail + ecological recreation and air-rail + rural revitalization and other development concepts of planning and construction, and with the new energy air-rail project construction The construction of new energy air-rail project is taken as a hand to comprehensively develop and utilize the advantageous resources of the areas along the route.

     Asia News Weekly: Mr. Tang, it's very inspiring to hear your introduction of the three innovative concepts of new energy air-rail. So, what are the characteristics and comparative advantages of the new energy air-rail product? Can you give us a brief introduction?

     Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Airtrain Group Co., Ltd: As we all know, different modes of transportation have different characteristics and roles, relative to the ground road transportation mode. and subway transportation modes The new energy air-rail product has its own characteristics and obvious comprehensive advantages. First of all, it is a single right of way, punctual, air railway as a new type of suspended monorail transportation mode, air moving, do not fight with people, do not fight with the car, not subject to ground traffic conditions and traffic lights, is a kind of non-obstructive, high time-sensitive public transportation mode. Secondly, it is smooth and comfortable with high safety. The air railway adopts special rubber-covered steel wheels, and is made ofATOThe system is controlled so that it can start or stop at the optimum acceleration and deceleration speeds under any full or no-load conditions, smoothly and comfortably, and the empty railroad is at a height of5 meters high running in the air, the view is wide, you can sightseeing scenery, air railway track is located in the closed steel beam, walking wheel and guide wheel always run in the box-shaped track beam, safe and reliable, will not be derailed and derailed, there will be no collision, the safety is higher than the ground road traffic. The third is energy saving and environmental protection, low noise. The air-rail uses lithium-ion battery as the power source, power consumption 1.8kilowatt-hour (kWh)/ vehicle kilometers, power battery technology is mature, green, air-rail wheels closed in the track beams, steel wheels using rubber wrapped, from the city's skyscrapers through the outside noise of the air-rail car does not exceed 65It is far lower than the noise of subway operation. Fourthly, it occupies less land and has strong adaptability. The pillar pile foundation of the air railway track occupies a very small area, and the ground space occupied by the station is also not large, the urban land resources are limited and expensive, the ground road transportation occupies a large amount of land resources, the subway occupies a large amount of underground resources, while the air railway mainly utilizes the grounded space resources, which is the most economical mode of transportation, and the air railway has a strong ability to climb slopes, has a small turning radius, and has a high degree of flexibility in the selection of the line, and has a strong adaptability to the complicated terrain and the surrounding environment. It has strong adaptability to the complex terrain and surrounding environment. Fifthly, the construction difficulty is small and the construction period is short. The main components of the air-rail product system, including track beams, pillars and vehicles, etc., are all completed in the factory, the construction difficulty is small, and the construction will not be like the subway and the ground road construction on the surrounding environment and traffic has a great impact, and the construction period is short, and it is very easy to complete the construction of an air-rail system.The construction of the 20-kilometer air-rail line required only 1Years or so , far shorter than subway and surface road construction cycles. Sixth, it is fast and has considerable capacity. The air-railway can reach speeds of up to80kilometers, using3-car configuration with up to 100 passengers per car.Each AirTrain is fully loaded with passengers up to300 people, the minimum interval when the bus is designed for 2 minutes, the residents ride simple and fast, the hourly capacity in both directions up to 1.45million passengers, the daily capacity can be up toWith 240,000 passengers and considerable capacity, it is an effective way to solve the problem of urban public transportation. The seventh feature is that the investment is small and quick, low operating costs. The average cost per kilometer is only one-eighth to one-tenth of the subway, the subway construction of complex underground conditions, the construction of the general need for 4,000 kilometers.until (a time)5 years. And the air railway construction cycle of about one year, the air railway investment is less, the construction period is shorter, the effect is quick, the advantage is very obvious. The eighth major feature is that it is subject to fewer conditions and has a wide range of applications. Air railway both to adapt to urban public transportation, but also applicable to tourism traffic and sightseeing, both for the plains, but also for the mountainous areas and plateau snow and ice cold areas for a long period of time, can be climbed, can cross the river, can adapt to a variety of complex terrain of the transportation needs. It can be said that the new energy air railway is a resource-saving, economical and new modern transportation mode.

     Newsweek Asia: Mr. Tang, after listening to your introduction of the eight features and advantages of AirTrain, it really makes people very eager. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview!

  Mr. Tang Tong, Chairman of Zhongtang Airtrain Group Company, and Mr. Tan Guoqi of this magazine.