Two months after China unveiled the world's longest sea bridge at a ceremony in Hong Kong, the nation has already struggled to accommodate an influx of tourists.

In November, the Guangdong province temporarily suspended one-day weekend trips to Hong Kong to reduce the number of tourists entering from mainland China. The ban only lasted for two days, but it seemed to spark a major dip in passengers.

Community members have said that restrictions to the bridge's shuttle services are also to blame.

At more than 34 miles long, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge is part of a master plan to create a global science and technology hub by connecting two Chinese territories, Hong Kong and Macau (the world's largest gambling center), to nine nearby cities.

With an economic output of $1.5 trillion, the new mega-region — known as the Greater Bay Area — is positioned to rival Silicon Valley. The plan also includes the construction of an $11 billion bullet train, which opened in September.

The bridge is not open to public transit, so only certain vehicles — shuttles, freight cars, and private cars with permits — are allowed to cross. Pedestrians and bicyclists are prohibited.

While some have criticized the structure as a waste of taxpayer dollars, others tout its ability to connect up to 70 million people in the region.

Take a look at its remarkable design below.</s>A $20-billion bridge connecting Hong Kong and Macau to the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai is set to finally open this week, marking the completion of the longest sea-crossing bridge ever built, nine years after construction began.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend a ceremony in Zhuhai on Tuesday, along with top officials from Hong Kong and Macau, with the bridge opening to public traffic Wednesday.

The 55-kilometer (34-mile) bridge was originally due to open in 2016, but repeated delays pushed that to this year.

It is a key element of China’s plan for a Greater Bay Area covering 56,500 square kilometers (21,800 square miles) across southern China, and encompassing 11 cities, including Hong Kong and Macau, that are home to a combined 68 million people.

Proponents of the idea say the bridge will cut journey times between the cities from three hours to 30 minutes, which they say will enable commuters and tourists to easily move around the region.

“With the bridge, the traveling time between Hong Kong and the Western Pearl River Delta region will be shortened significantly, thereby bringing the Western Pearl River Delta region within three hours’ drive from Hong Kong,” the city’s transport secretary, Frank Chan, said Friday.

Despite the focus on drive time however, private car owners in Hong Kong will not be able to cross the bridge without a special permit. Most drivers will have to park at the Hong Kong port, switching to shuttle bus or special hire cars once they are through immigration. Shuttle buses cost $8-$10 for a single trip depending on the time of day.

The bridge project has come in for fierce criticism in Hong Kong, where there was little public demand or appetite for greater links to either Macau or Zhuhai, and fears the city will be swamped by tourists from mainland China.

In 2016, Hong Kong saw 56.7 million tourist arrivals, compared to 37.6 million for the UK, a much larger country.

For critics of the Chinese government, the bridge is seen as a tool to drag the city — which boasts a semi-democratic legislature and independent judiciary and has seen numerous mass protests in recent years — closer into Beijing’s grip.

“You can’t see the existing transport connections — in a literal way. But this bridge is very visible … you can see it from the plane when you fly in to Hong Kong, and it’s breathtaking,” lawmaker Claudia Mo told CNN earlier in the year.

“It links Hong Kong to China almost like an umbilical cord. You see it, and you know you’re linked up to the motherland.”

Mo and other critics also point to the huge amount of money spent by Hong Kong — upwards of $9 billion — while the city is dealing with an acute lack of public housing and widespread poverty.

“Hong Kong has had to fund a lot of the bridge, but we won’t see many benefits here,” Mo said.

Built to withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake, a super typhoon and strikes by super-sized cargo vessels, the bridge incorporates 400,000 tons of steel — 4.5 times the amount in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

It also includes a 6.7-kilometer (4-mile) submerged tunnel to help it avoid the busy shipping paths over the Pearl River Delta. The tunnel runs between two artificial islands, each measuring 100,000 square meters (1 million square feet) and situated in relatively shallow waters.

While an impressive engineering feat, the building of the bridge brought its own controversies. The Pearl River Delta is home to an endangered Chinese white dolphin population that has been buffeted by massive land reclamation efforts in Hong Kong and other cities.

Conservation experts previously told CNN they feared the bridge, as well as ongoing expansion of Hong Kong airport, could be the final nail in the dolphins’ coffin, sending the local population into terminal decline.

In response to environmental concerns over the bridge, the Hong Kong government has provided for the creation of extra marine parks to protect dolphins and other aquatic life, but some experts say this may be too late to reduce the effect of the construction already carried out.

The bridge has also faced considerable public criticism over safety standards. Seven workers died in constructing the bridge, and another 275 were injured. Hong Kong officials have previously blamed the death toll on lack of manpower, and earlier this year a court fined several subcontractors over the issue.</s>The 55 kilometre bridge that connects Hong Kong to Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai is set to be opened with an official ceremony attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The bridge - the longest sea bridge in the world - has taken nearly 10 years to complete and will open to the public on Wednesday after its official opening on Tuesday.

Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, will also attend the official opening.

The bridge's main access road to Hong Kong's port, however, will not be completed until next year, according to the South China Morning Post, in one of a number of scandals that have tarnished the project's image in the autonomous Chinese city.

The Dolphin Conservation Society told broadcaster RTHK on Tuesday that construction of the bridge has led to a more than a 40 per cent decline in local populations of the critically endangered Chinese white dolphin, which is also a symbol of Hong Kong.</s>ZHUHAI - China's President Xi Jinping launched the world's longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China Tuesday at a time when Beijing is tightening its grip on its semi-autonomous territories.

Xi announced the bridge officially open at a ceremony also attended by Hong Kong's and Macau's city leaders at a new port terminal in the southern mainland city of Zhuhai.

"I declare the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge officially open," Xi said as digital fireworks exploded on a screen behind him in an indoor ceremony, before leaving the stage immediately. He did not address the audience.

Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam had earlier spoken to thank Xi for attending in person, praising the bridge's "magnificence".

The 55-kilometre crossing, which includes a snaking road bridge and underwater tunnel, links Hong Kong's Lantau island to Zhuhai and the gambling enclave of Macau, across the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.

It is the second major infrastructure project tying Hong Kong to mainland China to launch in a matter of weeks, after the opening of a high-speed rail link last month, and is part of a Beijing-driven strategy to create a sprawling "Greater Bay Area" economic hub.

Critics say the new multi-billion-dollar sea-bridge is one more way to integrate Hong Kong into China as fears grow that the city's cherished freedoms are being eroded.

The mega bridge will open to traffic on Wednesday.

Building began in 2009 and has been dogged by delays, budget overruns, corruption prosecutions and the deaths of construction workers.

The launch ceremony was hastily announced last week by mainland authorities with Hong Kong lawmakers and transport companies complaining they had been left in the dark.

Supporters of the project promote it as an engineering marvel that will also boost business and cut travel time, while others see it as a politically driven and costly white elephant.

The main bridge section is considered mainland territory and Hong Kong cars and drivers travelling over it "must comply with the laws and regulations of the mainland", according to the city's transport department.

There was no ceremony on the Hong Kong side Tuesday, but there was a heightened police presence in coastal areas near the bridge, with officers carrying out identity checks on journalists and members of the public.

Hong Kong residents will only be granted a licence to cross into Zhuhai by car if they meet highly selective criteria, including holding certain mainland government positions or making major contributions to charities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Most people will need to travel the bridge on coaches and buses.

Online commenters in Hong Kong complained about the bridge's restricted access ahead of the launch.

"Such a huge investment using the Hong Kong taxpayer's money... yet basically it is not open to us at all," said one comment on the South China Morning Post website.

But residents in Zhuhai welcomed the bridge.

"I think this bridge will bring great convenience to the whole area of Zhuhai, Hong Kong and Macao, and promote the economic development of the whole area of the Pearl River Delta," resident Dang Zheiliang told AFP.

Resident Can Binghua paid a visit to the bridge on his day off.

"Today I'm off duty, so I took my child to see the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Now it's almost open to traffic. It's magnificent," he told AFP.

Some Hong Kong media reported that the physical condition of bus drivers would be monitored by cameras, including an alert sent if a driver yawns more than three times in 20 seconds.

China already lays claim to the record for the world's longest bridge of any kind -- the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, a viaduct which is part of a high-speed rail line.

The opening of the high-speed rail link last month also sparked criticism as it saw Chinese security stationed on Hong Kong soil for the first time at the city's terminus.

Critics accused the Hong Kong government of giving away territory to an increasingly assertive Beijing.</s>Mega bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau and China to open on Tuesday





 The world's longest sea bridge that will connect Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese mainland will open to traffic on Wednesday.

 

 The project, which has been surrounded in secrecy during construction, will have a grand opening on Tuesday in Zhuhai on mainland China - possibly attended by China's President Xi Jinping

 

 Hong Kong MPs have criticised a lack of transparency over when traffic will be able to use the bridge, while local bus companies have also complained about being kept in the dark.

 

 The 55-kilometre crossing, which includes a snaking road bridge and a tunnel that plunges into the sea, links Hong Kong's Lantau island to Zhuhai and Macau, across the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.

 

 Construction of the massive infrastructure project began in 2009 and has been dogged by delays, budget overruns, corruption prosecutions and the deaths of construction workers.

 

 Supporters of the bridge promote it as an engineering marvel, while others see it as a costly political project designed to further integrate Hong Kong into the mainland.</s>HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday opened a new bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese city of Zhuhai, one of the world’s longest bridges, across the mouth of south China’s Pearl River.

The bridge is made up of nearly 35-km (22-mile) bridge sections and a 6.7 km (4-mile) tunnel, and has been dubbed the longest “bridge-cum-tunnel sea crossing” in the world.

It links the financial hub of Hong Kong to the former Portuguese colony of Macau and the relatively less developed western reaches of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province.

The opening of the bridge comes on the 40th anniversary of the beginning of China’s reforms which transformed the country from a centrally planned to a market-driven economy.</s>Another step in China’s project to bring Hong Kong into its bosom is complete and is set to connect the former European outposts of Hong Kong and Macau with the mainland.

The $15 billion, 55-kilometer (34-mile) bridge, which Xinhua says is the world’s longest sea link, will open for traffic at 9 am on Wednesday and is tipped to carry some 29,000 cars and trucks daily between Zhuhai on the mainland and Hong Kong, a former British colony.

The waters over which the bridge stands now was formerly patrolled by three navies, and the land borders were decades ago guarded by the People’s Liberation Army to mostly keep defectors from leaving.

The project is part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping plan to knit the so-called Greater Bay Area in southern Guangdong province into a high-tech megalopolis to rival California’s Silicon Valley.

It also envisions a better marriage between China’s industrial might and its one-party state and the liberal, capitalist bastions of Hong Kong and Macau, which have their own passports, currencies, trade policies, courts and civil rights.

The Greater Bay Area could serve as a new growth engine for the capital markets of Hong Kong, the casinos of Macau, formerly a Portuguese colony, and nearby Shenzhen, the economic powerhouse one of Xi’s predecessors, Deng Xiaoping, built on their doorstep almost four decades ago.

The area — with 67 million residents — would boast a trillion-dollar economy and eclipse Japan as the world’s fourth-largest exporter, according to HSBC Holdings Plc.

The bridge, inaugurated Tuesday by President Xi Jinping, “would enable Hong Kong and Macau to better leverage the favorable conditions and the unique advantage offered by the mainland” to help engage with the world, Vice Premier Han Zheng said at a function to mark the event in Zhuhai.

The sea bridge is the latest to link Hong Kong directly to the mainland. In September, the city plugged into China’s 15,500-mile high-speed rail network with a futuristic new terminus overlooking the Victoria Harbor. A train to Beijing from Hong Kong now would take nine hours and cost less than half the price of flight ticket.

About 4,00,000 metric tons of steel was used to build the bridge, or enough to build 55 Eiffel Towers, according to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority. Bringing the less developed part of Guangdong closer to Hong Kong, the link will help reduce travel time by road to Zhuhai to about 30 minutes, from three hours.

The bridge was built on one of the world’s busiest sea routes, where more than 4,000 vessels and 1,800 flights travel back and forth daily, carrying annually more than 20 million people and 1.2 billion tons of goods. The area is also known for strong typhoons each year and rare marine species including Chinese white dolphins.</s>Chinese officials are set to unveil the world’s longest sea bridge this week after nine years of construction work, advancing the country's interest in connecting three major regions.

Around 26 miles, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge consists of a main bridge over Chinese mainland waters, with attached border checkpoints and roads connecting the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Zhuhai City in Guangdong, China, and the Macao Special Administrative Region.

The bridge will include 22 miles of a three-lane highway from northern Lantau to the Western Shore of the Pearl River Estuary, and a 4.1 mile tunnel between two artificial islands along the way to prevent the disruption to sea traffic. The bridge is lined with towers topped by dolphins, Chinese Knots and ship sails to symbolize the three different regions, according to the South China Morning Post.

The total cost of the project is $20 billion, according to The Guardian newspaper.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will bring the Chinese mainland economic hub of the West Bank of the Pearl River Delta to within a 3-hour drive of Hong Kong.

Steve Tsang, the Director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said the bridge is part of a larger Chinese investment strategy. “This is part of the ‘Greater Bay Area’ Project, which includes Hong Kong and Macau with the development of the Pearl River bay area,” he told ABC News. “It is about making Hong Kong an integral part of what is supposed to be a new dynamic economic and innovative engine of China.”

Chinese President Xi Jingping visited the bridge in July of last year, and is expected to attend the opening ceremony on Tuesday.

“Xi Jinping's visit to the region also reinforces Hong Kong's role in the cross-border economy approach that China is developing,” said Dr. Winnie King, a specialist in Chinese international political economy at the University of Bristol. “There's a clear symbolic value of being the world's longest bridge re[garding] nationalism and state-building.”

But the reasons behind the investment may not be purely economic, as the bridge will bring Hong Kong, which has a separate system of governance, closer into Beijing’s sphere of influence.

“By making Hong Kong an integral part of the Greater Bay area, it will bring Hong Kong closer to mainland China, notwithstanding the official commitment for the ‘one country, two systems’ model,” said Tsang. “The more Hong Kong is integrated into mainland China, the less is there a case for it to be given very special treatment.”</s>ZHUHAI, China — China on Tuesday opened the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge linking Hong Kong to the mainland, a feat of engineering carrying immense economic and political significance.

Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a ceremony in the city of Zhuhai to open the 55-kilometre-long bridge linking it to the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Digital fireworks exploded on a screen behind him as leaders of the three cities watched.

The $20 billion bridge took almost a decade to build while incurring major delays and cost overruns. It includes an undersea tunnel allowing ships to pass through the Pearl River delta, the heart of China’s crucial manufacturing sector.

The bridge forms a physical link between the mainland and Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub that was handed over from British to Chinese control in 1997 with the assurance it would maintain its own legal and economic system for 50 years.

That carries major political significance for Xi’s administration, which has rejected calls for political liberalization in Hong Kong, sparking fears Beijing will clamp down further on civil liberties before the end of the “one country, two systems” arrangement in 2047.

The bridge’s opening also comes a month after the inauguration of a new high-speed rail link from Hong Kong to mainland China that runs along a different, shorter route. That line has vastly decreased travel times but also raised concerns about Beijing’s growing influence because mainland Chinese law applies within part of the line’s Hong Kong terminus.

To Claudia Mo, a Hong Kong democratic politician, the bridge’s political significance outweighs its practical usefulness.

“It’s not exactly necessary, because Hong Kong is connected to mainland China in every way already, by land, by air, by sea,” Mo told The Associated Press.

“But they still need it as a political symbol or icon to remind Hong Kong people … that you are connected to the motherland, with this very grand bridge. It’s almost like an umbilical cord.”

Its opening will cut travel time across the delta from several hours to just 30 minutes, something China hopes will bind the region together as a major driver of future economic growth. Heavily regulated traffic using permits issued under a quota system will begin flowing on Wednesday.

In Zhuhai, however, sentiments revolved around economic growth and national pride.

Airline pilot Liu Gang said he’d been eagerly anticipating the opening of the bridge, calling it a symbol of the mainland’s increasingly close ties with Hong Kong and Macau.
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“It’ll bring us even closer together, make us more flexible, economically and in many other ways. We’re now one family,” Liu said Monday afternoon while strolling along a walkway and shooting photos of the structure.

 Luo Fengzhi, who works in real estate, cited the bridge as evidence of China’s growing economic and engineering prowess.

“For Chinese people, this makes them feel proud,” she said. “I hope that every patriotic Chinese person can come and see this great feat of engineering, and I welcome foreigners to come and see for themselves as well.”</s>The 34.2-mile bridge and tunnel that have been almost a decade in the making for the first time connect the semi-autonomous cities of Hong Kong and Macau to the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai by road.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge spans the mouth of the Pearl River and significantly cuts the commuting time between the three cities. The previously four-hour drive between Zhuhai and Hong Kong will now take 45 minutes.

One section of the crossing dives underwater into a 4.2 mile tunnel that creates a channel above for large cargo ship containers to pass through.

The project came in over budget -- with Hong Kong alone investing $15 billion in it -- and delayed, as it was originally slate to open in 2016.

At the opening ceremony, Han Zheng, the top Chinese official who oversees Beijing’s at-times tense relationship with Hong Kong, proclaimed that the bridge marked the first time that Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland had jointly cooperated on a major infrastructure project.

The bridge will help Hong Kong and Macau become more integrated with mainland China, he said.

But for some in Hong Kong, which maintains a separate legal system from China's, the bridge is the just the latest example of Beijing exerting more influence on them. Just in September a high-speed rail-link connected the heart of Hong Kong directly to China’s vast railway network.

Hong Kong lawmaker Claudia Mo has given multiple interviews this year likening the new bridge to a symbolic umbilical cord tethering Hong Kong to the motherland.

Beijing’s plan is to fully integrate Hong Kong and Macau -- which is known as the "Vegas of Asia" and the world’s biggest gambling hub, with the Pearl River Delta region, a giant manufacturing hub -- into what Beijing is calling the Greater Bay Area, a tech- and innovation-focused center to rival Silicon Valley.

The new sea bridge is not without other controversies as well. According the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, at least 10 workers died in the construction of the bridge and more than 600 were injured. In addition, environmentalist have said that the project has disrupted the habitat of Hong Kong’s already-endangered pink dolphin.

By 2030, authorities expect 29,100 vehicles and 126,000 passenger trips to criss-cross the bridge daily. But who gets to travel the bridge now?

The priority appears to be trade and tourists. Goods manufactured on the western end of the Pearl River Delta can now reach the container port and international airport of Hong Kong in 45 minutes, and a tourist landing in Hong Kong International Airport now has another option to reach Macau instead of taking a ferry.

All of the vehicles that will be allowed on the bridge, including trucks, tour buses, shuttles and select private cars, will require permits from all three jurisdictions. All three jurisdictions will also require passengers to clear immigration and customs.

Strict quotas will be enforced for private cars. Only 10,000 Hong Kong cars belonging to people or businesses that fit certain criteria will be issued a license to enter the mainland, and vehicles will require a separate cross-border Chinese license plate. Only 300 Hong Kong cars can enter Macau, and 600 Macau-licensed cars can drive to Hong Kong.

There is no public transportation running between the cities so private tour bus companies will run a shuttle bus between immigration points on either end of the bridge and licensed cross-border tour buses that can travel to the center of Hong Kong and Zhuhai.

One such cross-border operator called Trans-Island Limousine told ABC News on Tuesday morning that it is starting a slow roll out of bus lines this week. A one-way ticket will cost the equivalent of $15 and a round-trip ticket will cost about $28.
After nine years of construction, China is expected to open the world's longest sea bridge, Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, at a ceremony in Hong Kong.