Global Times: World's Tallest Bridge In SW China's Guizhou Forges A Path To Chinese Modernization

(MENAFN- PR Newswire)

BEIJING, Sept. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On a recent raining morning in Xiaohuajiang village, Zhenfeng county, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, Liang Shaoyu, a villager in his 70, stood on the second-floor balcony, marveling at a massive bridge overhead. The greenish, steel structure looks particularly striking among the thick clouds.

Less than a kilometer away, Xie Chaoqing usually gets up to the rooftop of his house, launching his drone to film the bridge and livestream it to many around the country. Across the street, a couple from East China's Zhejiang Province are busy turning an old house into a modern homestay for visitors. As the night falls, several local young people gathered at the entrance to the village, playing the traditional instruments around a bonfire, with colorful lights from the bridge overhead.

They are all preparing for the big day for not just Xiaohuajiang and Guizhou but also the world's bridge construction history: the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge will officially open to traffic on September 28, 2025. Spanning 2,890 meters in total with a main span of 1,420 meters, it claims the crown as the world's longest span bridge built in mountainous areas. Rising 625 meters from its deck to the river surface, it also secures its place as the planet's tallest bridge.

What imprint will September 28, leave on China's unfolding story? It is not just the "birthday" of the world's tallest bridge, but also the moment a new landmark tourist attraction emerges - a day when locals, who nest deep in the mountains, step further away from isolation and closer to the opportunities of the wider world.

For Guizhou, the opening of the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge is the latest milestone in its widely celebrated bridge construction legacy. Aptly named as "the world's bridge museum," Guizhou has now built, or is in the process of building, more than 32,000 bridges. Nearly half of the world's 100 highest bridges are located here, with the top three all making Guizhou their home, the Global Times learned from Guizhou provincial transportation department.

Yet behind these staggering numbers and record-setting spans lies a deeper narrative. More than transportation miracles, they stand as monuments to the perseverance and forward-looking resolve of the Guizhou people, who never cease striving for progress toward Chinese modernization. Such a resilient spirit is palpable during Global Times reporters' interviews with local residents, entrepreneurs, construction workers and engineers.

New bridge, new lives

Liang lives by the Beipan River, where the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge commands the view from his window. Each day, he finds himself gazing at the structure, lost in thought - the echoes of footsteps on the ancient trade route Tea Horse Road, the metallic creak of the old iron-chain suspension bridge from decades past now merging with the sight of the colossal new bridge before him.

Born in 1953 in Xiaohuajiang village, a Buyi ethnic community nestled in the folds of Guizhou's karst mountains, Liang grew up in a world locked tightly by peaks and rivers. In his childhood memories, "roads" meant the tangible exhaustion of travel, and "bridges" only barely ensured passage.

At that time, Xiaohuajiang village had only three ways out: one across the river and two over the mountains. To go to the market, villagers had to wake up at 3 am to slaughter pigs, carry loads on their shoulders, and climb mountains for three to four hours. Merchants and travelers crossed the river by bamboo raft, while horse caravans loaded with salt and tobacco trekked along the remains of the ancient Tea Horse Road. Floods were frequent, often washing away the temporary stone bridges.

The evolution of bridges has been a touchstone of memory for several generations in the village. According to inscriptions carved near the Huajiang Iron Chain Bridge, its construction began in 1898 during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), funded by local officials. When the iron bridge could no longer meet growing needs, a modern highway bridge was built downstream in 1961, allowing heavy vehicles to pass, but this bridge still cannot bypass the winding mountain road, Guizhou Daily reported. Liang said he had imagined countless times: "If one day a bridge could be built on the top of the mountain and people could cross it, how convenient it would be!"

Having served in the military in Yunnan where "he had seen the outside world," he was elected by villagers as the secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) branch of Xiaohuajiang village in 1983. At his first village meeting, he proposed: "We need to develop tourism!" The statement became a laughingstock. For generations, villagers had known only farming; the idea seemed like fantasy.

Today, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge is transforming the village. Once open, the crossing time between the canyon's two banks will drop from the previous two hours to a mere two minutes. Investors from other provinces lease old homes for guesthouses. Liang's own ancestral home is now a hostel run by an entrepreneur from East China's Zhejiang Province, hosting visitors drawn by the bridge's fame. Next door, 34-year-old Lin Guoquan returned home to open a homestay. Every day, he tells inquiring tourists over the phone: "You can see the bridge directly from our courtyard."

In recent days, all 40 of his guest rooms have been fully booked. His former classmate, Li Hanhan, volunteers at Lin's homestay after shifts at the milk-tea shop she founded, "High Bridge Tea Talk."

On the evening of September 24, Lin and Li brought Global Times reporters to a gathering at the village entrance. Young locals lit a bonfire, played the suona, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, and watched a test run of the bridge's water-screen light show across the valley. She live-streamed the scene, explaining the live stream was for Xiaohuajiang villagers working outside the area. In the comments, one wrote: "I'll come back during the National Day holidays to see how beautiful our hometown has become."

Liang told the Global Times that the backwardness and isolation of the past made local people hope they could escape these mountains.

But now he believes each generation has its own bridges and roads to travel. "I have walked on muddy roads and stone paths, crossed iron-chain bridges, and finally witnessed the birth of a world-class marvel," Liang said. "For the youth of Xiaohuajiang, however, a broad avenue awaits, leading their hometown, toward prosperity, and into the future."

Bridge-tourism drives revitalization

Like Liang, Xie starts each morning on his rooftop terrace, but instead of gazing into the distance, he lifts a drone controller, sending propellers whirring into the morning mist over the gorge. From an aerial view, his lens captures the world's tallest bridge arching across the Huajiang Gorge.

The experienced aerial photographer, originally from Guanling county on the opposite side of the bridge. He used to build a career in social media over in Zhejiang. A few years back, when he heard his hometown was expecte to get this record-breaking bridge, he grabbed his stuff and headed home, hoping to become a Vlogger who films the whole bridge-building process.

Initially scouting for the perfect shooting angle, he trekked through surrounding villages, and discovered Xiaohuajiang village.

Documenting the bridge became Xie's daily mission. He shares aerial footage and construction stories across social media platforms, now amassing over 1 million followers. Construction workers, technicians, and engineers often tune into his livestreams, forming friendships because of the bridge and across the screen. Some even brought him promotional brochures about the bridge, urging him to "promote our super project to more people outside."

Through his lens, netizens at home and abroad have gradually learned that the bridge is not just a transportation hub, but also a bridge-tourism integration demonstration project. A 207-meter-high sightseeing elevator whisks visitors to the bridge tower's top in 60 seconds, where a "cloud-top café," nearly 800 meters above the river, awaits. Additional attractions include a 1,411-meter-long aerial racing track, professional bungee facilities, and a glass observation hall encircling the bridge, making the structure as experiential as it is functional.

"Many netizens actively discuss with me during my livestream about the travel routes after coming to the bridge and how to choose the most appealing attractions among the numerous ones," Xie told the Global Times.

Global Times reporters observed that as one walks along the road leading to the Yundu highway service area near the bridge, murals of ancient marine fossils on the anti-landslide retaining walls on both sides stand out prominently.

"The Huajiang bridge stands on Triassic rock layers formed 250 to 201 million years ago, and is a world-famous spot for Triassic paleontology research," Zhang Xiaosong, cultural and tourism expert of Guizhou Normal University, told the Global Times. "When designing the service area nearby, our team made sure the bridge fits perfectly with the natural scenery and historical relics, all while working well as a transportation structure. Now, around this service area, you can also find canyon hotels, Triassic-themed guesthouses, and a youth archaeology research base - all of which are being steadily planned and constructed."

Zhang pointed out that the uniqueness of Guizhou's tourism lies in its ability to turn world-class projects directly into tourist attractions. "This not only avoids the high upfront investment of traditional tourism projects, but also significantly boosts the return on investment in transportation infrastructure construction."

Known as "the world's bridge musuem," Guizhou already boasts unique bridge-tourism resources. Moreover, local authorities are continuing to explore new paths for bridge-tourism integration through the construction of one bridge after another, Zhang said.

Spirit in every span

When talking about his bond with the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, Tian Hongrui, a 26-year-old hoisting technician for the bridge, uses an unexpectedly tender metaphor: "This bridge is like my own child." Though unmarried, he has witnessed and taken part in every stage of the bridge's journey. Joining the project back in May 2020 during its survey phase, Tian said that over the past five-plus years, he has averaged 20,000 steps per day, measuring the construction site inch by inch with his feet.

During the interview with the Global Times, Tian noted that the deep U-shaped terrain of the Huajiang Gorge posed countless challenges for builders, with the most intractable being the unpredictable canyon winds. "Instant wind speeds can reach Level 14, equivalent to a strong typhoon," Tian said. His tone carries both awe for nature and the quiet tenacity of a builder. He added that during the hoisting of steel truss girders, a single segment weighs 215 tons, and work must halt if winds exceed Level 6.

Meanwhile, the strict precision requirements for steel structure installation force the team to work at night when temperatures are low. But the canyon is often shrouded in thick fog after dark, leaving visibility extremely poor. Every operation feels like "walking a tightrope," combining safety risks with mounting construction difficulties, he said.

But adversity bred innovation. When conventional measuring tools faltered in the wind and fog, the BeiDou navigation system provided precision, acting as a "distant eye" to secure the installation of main cables. The introduction of a smart cable-hoisting system automated transport and installation, and in the most dangerous conditions, no on-site personnel were needed.

Today, Tian's biggest wish is simple yet passionate: "After the bridge opens, I must take my mom to walk on the deck, point to the bridge and tell her, 'Mom, this is the world-class project your son participated in!'"

In contrast to Tian's "pride as a newcomer," Liu Hao, chief engineer of the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge project, who has worked on three world-class bridges, holds a more sober perspective on "breaking records." Liu is forthright: the bridge becoming the "world's tallest" was not a deliberate pursuit of a record, but a "suitable and cost-effective" choice given Guizhou's unique geographical environment. "Surrounded by mountains, only a bridge like this can connect transportation networks at the optimal cost," he told the Global Times.

To him, China's bridge engineering leap is not an overnight success. "It is the cumulative result of generations," he said. The expertise inherited from predecessors, paired with advances in 5G and BeiDou, has propelled Guizhou from follower to leader in bridge technology.

Behind this transformation lies a deeper impulse: "We Guizhou people were forced to innovate," Liu said. "We see bridges as gateways to modernization and to the world."

On September 21, Liu stood on the bridge to welcome journalists from an ASEAN Plus Three (10+3) media delegation. "It is precisely because of this bridge that we can meet here today," he told them.

From the launch of its first expressway in 2001 to becoming the first western Chinese province to achieve county-level expressway access by 2015, Guizhou used only 15 years to rewrite its destiny. By the end of 2024, the province's expressway network had reached 9,042 kilometers, studded with world-class bridges and tunnels that have drawn global attention, Guizhou Daily reported.

When talking about his understanding of "bridges," Liu's tone softens, "It is mathematics, physics, and mechanics, but also philosophy, poetry, and distant horizons." In his eyes, each bridge represents a connection of shared aspiration: linking isolated mountains to markets, transforming local resources into opportunities, and weaving Guizhou's landscapes into the global tapestry.

"We Guizhou people possess this poetic sensibility," Liu said. "And we are willing to strive for new miracles as we pursue for a better future."

SOURCE Global Times

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