By The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge towers 625 metres over the Beipan River in China’s Guizhou province, which is known for its dramatic mountains.
After three years of construction, the massive 2,890-meter-long* suspension bridge was finally opened to traffic on Sunday (28 Sep), dramatically cutting the 2 hours it used to take motorists to get from one side of the valley to the other, to just 2 minutes!
China is not going to put any other country’s nose ‘out of joint’ with this achievement.
The now World’s Second Highest Bridge, the 565-metre high Duge Bridge is a neighbour, just 100km up river. This stunning mountainous region**, reliant on extraordinary transport engineering, now calls itself “the world’s bridge museum” thanks to its 32,000 bridges***. It’s not surprising that the province has almost half of the world’s 100 highest bridges, including the top three!
(Photo: mrs.gsoell CC BY-ND 2.0)
It is also not surprising that this stunning landscape draws millions of, mostly Chinese, tourists who flock to vista points to enjoy the amazing views, dramatic waterfalls (including Huangguoshu Waterfall, Asia’s largest waterfall), scary glass walkways and other vertigo-inducing experiences such as paragliding and bungee jumping.
Tourism is a major industry in the region and the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge was designed to be a part of that from the start.
Take a look at AFP’s video of the bridge. You noticed the water spray curtain in the video? That will be part of a giant lightshow. Did you notice the glass elevator? That will take visitors to the very top of the tower where there is an observation platform and café (due to open this month).
The local government anticipates the bridge will become a world-renowned tourist destination, drawing a million visitors per annum.
* The main span is 1,420 metres making it the world’s longest span in a mountainous region.
** Guizhou has 72 named mountains
***built or under construction
Feature image: Glabb, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
