14 DAY TRIAL // When other things are small, others compensate... The Chinese have the largest wall (The Great Wall), the largest dam (Three Gorges) and now the longest sea-crossing bridge. It is 22-mile (35 km) long and its builders say it is the world's longest sea-crossing structure, being oficially linked-up on Tuesday near the south of the business hub of Shanghai.
The bridge connects Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo across Hangzhou Bay and shortens the distance between them from approximately 250 miles (400 km) to just 50 miles (80 km), thus with 200 miles (320 km). Officials welded together the last section to complete the link at a ceremony attended by several hundred workers from the many companies involved in building the bridge.
The bridge cost 11.8 billion yuan (?0.77 billion) and it will be opened to traffic in 2008 following completion of the six-lane roadway that will allow vehicles to travel at speeds of up to 62 miles (100 km) per hour. The bridge is a mix of viaducts and cable-stayed spans to permit the passing of the ships beneath and it is located just south of the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's most economically vital regions which is experiencing a huge construction boom hinted at boosting transport links. Just north of Shanghai, this month the connection of the last link in a 20.13-mile (33 km) bridge across the Yangtze has been announced, which is the longest cable-stayed structure of this type.
The previous structure of this type is the 20.2-mile (32 km) Donghai Bridge, connecting Shanghai to the massive Yangshan deep water port.
The building of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge started in 2003 with a percentage of its funding coming from private sources, a first time for such a large infrastructure project in China.