China is to sign a deal with Saudi Arabia to build a light rail system in Mecca to help transport millions of pilgrims, a senior diplomat said.



Yang Honglin, Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told China Daily the deal will be signed "soon" but he didn't confirm whether it would be done during President Hu Jintao's three-day visit to the country, which started yesterday.



"China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) is now talking with the Saudi Arabian authorities about the deal," Yang said.



CRCC, along with a Saudi Arabian company and a French transport company, will finish the project in 2013, International Islamic News Agency reported.



A source with the Foreign Ministry said CRCC's deal is worth $1.77 billion. But the company yesterday refused to confirm that figure.



With a speed of 360 km p h the rail line will be able to take pilgrims from Mecca to Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam, in just half an hour, it said.



It will be able to "rapidly evacuate the crowd at the peak of the Hajj pilgrimage", Yang said.



According to Yang, Saudi Arabia entrusted the Chinese government to designate a Chinese enterprise for the project last month. It was the first inter-governmental project between the two countries after they agreed to consolidate cooperation on infrastructure construction last summer.



Saudi media reported last October that their government intended to invest $5.3 billion in five light rail systems linking key locations of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in west Saudi Arabia, including Mecca, Mina and the Hill of Arafat.



The lines will reportedly be able to carry 5 million pilgrims.



Visit of cooperation



Hu's ongoing visit to the country is his second in three years and is the first trip overseas he has made this year.



"This reflects that the Chinese leadership highly values the strategic friendly relations with Saudi Arabia," Yang said.



It was reported China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's biggest oil processor, and Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil exporter, may sign crude supply and refinery service accords during Hu's visit.



Saudi Arabia has been the largest overseas supplier of crude oil to China.



http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-02/11/content_7463245.htm

our goods chinegooks friends must beings increaseds friendship to all our ummah brotherhoods for they are only beings slants eyes and flat ugly face and very girly race and polites
so its beings too much good friendship with no trouble no call for westerns like bikini anali threesome anglo zionazi amerikunts incestuous faggetry drunkards its jungle cultue? makings ridiculous comments of assailings our arabs saudis brothers customs

sayonara our good chinegooks friends

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I am old Christiankiller
Sorry for offensive to our good religion christian brothers
I am not hating christians

Great.....

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Anglonizian killer is a perfect example of what happens when you nutrition consists only of cocaina and LSD.




"The high minded man must care for the truth rather than what other people think"
"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut." Albert Einstien
"If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president's." John F. Kennedy

We can see that considering the irrelevance and misspelled words in your post.

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I am old Christiankiller
Sorry for offensive to our good religion christian brothers
I am not hating christians

Congratulations to the Chinese, I think it was tough that they managed to beat the Japanese, South Koreans and Western Europeans on this deal.

By the way, I'm starting to think that our friend anglo is actually an artificial intelligence that responds to certain phrases like "Westerners", "Pope, "faggetry", "Chinese/Japanese" with certain phrases "bikini nekked, jungle culture, sayonara" etc. Can this be true?

Congratulations to the Chinese, I think it was tough that they managed to beat the Japanese, South Koreans and Western Europeans on this deal.

Seems like you missed "with France" in the article.

"Seems like you missed "with France" in the article. "

You are correct. However I mentioned Western European countries, and that includes France. Although France should have been mentioned on its own; as it is more advanced compared to other Western countries in high speed train building.

Pathfinder, What the Frenchman was hinting at is that this is not a 'China alone' project.Its a combined Saudi-French-Chinese consortium that bagged the deal. The chinese members presumably forgot to inform that.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090207/bs_afp/saudimeccarailcompanyalstomrajhichinarailway_20090207104829

Consortium wins Mecca rail project


RIYADH (AFP) A Saudi-French-Chinese consortium has bagged the 1.8 billion dollar civil works contract for the Mecca-Medina high speed railway, a project official said on Saturday.

The Al-Rajhi construction group together with France's Alstom and China Railway Engineering won the 6.8 billion riyal (1.8 billion dollar) contract, an official of the Saudi Railways Organisation told AFP, declining to be named.

The civil works contract is the first stage of a six billion dollar plan to build a 444 kilometre (275 mile) high-speed railroad linking the two Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina through the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

The project aims to ferry hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Mecca and Medina at speeds reaching 360 kilometres (225 miles) per hour


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Let Noble Thoughts Come to Us from All Sides- RigVeda

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Was there another project that China won in mecca?

If im not mistaken it was about Monorail from Mecca Grand mosque to Arafah, Mina and Mudzalifah Holysites.

Congrats to France & China Anyway.

Thanks for the clarification, congrats to both countries then.

Although France should have been mentioned on its own; as it is more advanced compared to other Western countries in high speed train building.
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No it isn't.

No it isn't.
Just few months before the AGV