On August 14, VM DU made a trip to Tianjin to survey the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). Accompanied by personnel from the Department of High and New Technology Development and Industrialization and Tianjin Municipal S&T Commission, the Vice Minister went to the construction site of the Subway Line Two and examined the performance of TBM, a device independently developed by Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co., Ltd under the support of National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program).

On top of the full recognition of the development of TBM in recent years, VM DU also raised questions concerning the localization rate of TBM, differences between TBM made in China and in other countries as well as the bottlenecks for TBM.