1. Factors enabling a shrinking world

13. Containerisation and relatively low fuel costs have meant that the transport costs for each unit transported is very low. It costs around 1500 to 2500 Euros to transport a TEU container from Singapore to Rotterdam.

14. Ra nk Port Country 2007 2006 2005 2004 1Singapore Singapore 27,93224,79223,19221,329 2Shanghai People's Republic of China 26,15021,71018,08414,557 3Hong Kong People's Republic of China 23,88123,53922,42721,984 4Shenzhen People's Republic of China 21,09918,46916,19713,615 5Busan South Korea 13,27012,03911,84311,430 6Rotterdam Netherlands 10,7919,6559,2878,281 7Dubai United Arab Emirates 10,6538,9237,6196,429 8Kaohsiung Taiwan 10,2579,7759,4719,714 9Hamburg Germany 9,8908,8628,0887,003 10Qingdao People's Republic of China 9,4627,7026,3075,140 11Ningbo People's Republic of China 9,3497,0685,2084,006 12Guangzhou People's Republic of China 9,2006,6004,6853,308 13Los Angeles United States of America 8,3558,4707,4857,321 14Antwerp Belgium 8,1767,0196,4826,064 15Long Beach United States of America 7,3167,2896,7105,780 Container Traffic (in thousands TEU Twenty foot equivalent containers)

15. How far is it from your home to school?

16. We tend to think of distance in terms of travel times. Travel times are being reduced because of the increase in air travel. Also air travel is becoming more affordable. For example in the year 2000 Bratislava to London. £75 by bus 22 hours. 2008 Bratislava to London. £40 by low cost airline 2.5 hours.

17. Aviation transports more than 2.2 billion passengers annually Aviation carries over 44 million tonnes of freight annually and 35% of interregional exports of goods by value IATA (International Air Transport Association) 2008

18. Enabling Technologies; Information and communication technology. Internet Mobile phones

19. Products from home country. British, Korean, US section in Tesco Polish shops and Kurnky in UK