On Bali, an island thick with beach tourists, surfing instructor Amri Anjulius is holding out for a 60km (37.3-mile) urban subway to relieve pressure on a maze of two-lane streets, where cars crawl and motor scooters weave between them.

Like many Indonesians, he believes China will be at the forefront of efforts to expand the travel network across the archipelago nation’s 6,000 inhabited islands, home to 285 million people. That confidence stems from China’s role in building Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway on Java, the world’s most populous island.

“You ask the government and if they say it’s China, then it’s China,” said Anjulius, 41, who has sweated the Bali traffic for 16 years. “I think these projects are for China.”

The China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) is already building the US$20 million Bali Urban Subway alongside local firms, with the first line expected to open in 2031.

Millions of passengers have already travelled on the line connecting Jakarta and Bandung, the capital of West Java province. The journey takes 40 minutes instead of three hours by road, with no operational hitches reported so far.