The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge Xinhua News Agency/eyevine China’s new mega-bridge was officially opened today by President Xi Jinping after 9 years of construction. The 55-kilometre-long structure, which is the longest over-sea bridge in the world, crosses the Pearl River estuary to connect the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong and Macau. It’s 20 times longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Advertisement In one section, the bridge transitions to an underwater tunnel for 7 kilometres to make way for ships to cross and planes to take off from the nearby Hong Kong International Airport. About 400,000 tons of steel was used in the project, equivalent to eight times the amount used to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The structure is supported by pillars embedded in the seafloor, cables hanging from giant towers, and two artificial islands. The bridge’s route CC BY-SA 4.0 According to its engineers, it should be able to withstand a magnitude-8 earthquake, a super typhoon, or a collision with a 300,000-tonne ship. The project has been criticised for the deaths of 10 workers and its feared impacts on local white dolphins. Only 47 of the animals are still left in the area, down from 188 in 2003. China is also home to the longest bridge of any kind in the world, the 164-kilometre-long Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, which crosses land and water between Shanghai and Nanjing.<doc-sep>And drivers will have to change which side of the road they are on at the crossing. People drive on the left in Hong Kong and Macau but the bridge is Chinese territory and special merger channels have been built to cope with this.<doc-sep>President Joe Biden stops to talk to the media as he drives a Ford F-150 Lightning truck at Ford Dearborn Development Center, Tuesday, May 18, 2021, in Dearborn, Mich. Barack Obama on UFOs: We don't know exactly what they are A general view of a section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in Zhuhai on March 28, 2018. - Officials say the bridge, billed as the world's longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China, will boost business and cut travel time, but opponents in Hong Kong see it as another attempt by Beijing to tighten its grip on the semi-autonomous city. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP) (Photo credit should read PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — 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. ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images In this photo taken on October 7, 2018, a section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HKZMB) is seen from Lantau island in Hong Kong. Fierce criticism 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. ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images The world's longest sea bridge, connecting Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese mainland will open to traffic on October 24, 2018 officials said, after complaints about the secrecy surrounding the project. “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. ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images A general view shows a barrier on the Hong Kong side of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HKZM) on October 19, 2018, five days ahead of its opening ceremony. Huge engineering effort 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. Photos: Bridges that break the mold PHOTO: Courtesy JCDA A team led by Xu Weiguo at Tsinghua University's School of Architecture completed the world's longest 3D-printed concrete bridge in Shanghai. Photos: Bridges that break the mold PHOTO: Courtesy JCDA The bridge took 450 hours to produce and was unveiled in January 2019. Scroll through the gallery for some of the world's most spectacular bridges. Photos: Bridges that break the mold PHOTO: Courtesy NEXT architects Lucky Knot Bridge by NEXT Architects, in progress (Changsha, China) — The name and shape of NEXT Architects' Lucky Knot Bridge refers to the Chinese art of decorative knotting, which is associated with good luck. The name and shape of NEXT Architects' Lucky Knot Bridge refers to the Chinese art of decorative knotting, which is associated with good luck. Photos: Bridges that break the mold PHOTO: Zaha Hadid Architects Danjiang Bridge by Zaha Hadid Architects, in progress (Taipei, Taiwan) — At just over 3,000 ft, the Danjiang Bridge -- one of the last commissions awarded to the late Zaha Hadid -- will be the world's longest single-tower, asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, according to the firm.<doc-sep>There was a considerable crowd queuing up for shuttle buses at the Hong Kong terminal. "The atmosphere at the terminal was buzzing - it was quite busy and people were queuing up, though many of them were pensioners. There weren't many young people," he said.<doc-sep>
Heading over to Macau on the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge proved to be the least crowded excursion I’ve ever done in Hong Kong Occasionally, as the bridge curved, you could just glimpse what looked like a giant millipede stepping across the water in the foggy distance. Last Wednesday, the world’s longest sea-crossing opened for business and I was one of the first to make the trip. The light was a little murky; sea and sky had melded so that it looked as if the Chinese fishing-boats, with their nets akimbo, were flying through the air. Autumn in Hong Kong is the season when the winds change direction and the north-east monsoon begins to blow pollution down from the factories on the Pearl river delta. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge [HZMB] is intended to stitch together the two former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau (one British; one Portuguese) with the coastal Special Economic Zone of Zhuhai and create part of an even bigger tapestry: the Greater Bay Area. China says it will promote economic strength and efficiency. To critics, the bridge is an excuse to fold Hong Kong into the mainland until it disappears. Whatever the reason, after years of tales of corruption and complaints over the cost (about £15.5 billion), when China announced that the bridge would finally be inaugurated by President Xi Jinping in Zhuhai on Tuesday, it gave less than a week’s notice. Slightly inauspiciously, the news came on Oct 17, a grave-sweeping public holiday in Hong Kong. As with another famous Chinese construction – the Great Wall – workers died building it, and Hong Kong media have referred to it as “the bridge of death”. Inauguration, it turned out, did not mean open for business. Those who wanted to be at the head of the queue to cross would have to wait another day until Wednesday when the public would at last be able to get a first-hand sense of a project officially begun in 2009. When is a bridge not a bridge? This one has an undersea tunnel Credit: iStock Not that there was much of a queue. After all the hype, crossing this exceedingly expensive political symbol turned out to be the smoothest, and least crowded, excursion I’ve ever done in Hong Kong. The gateway to the bridge is about five minutes’ journey from Hong Kong airport and inside the passenger clearance building, with its wavy roof designed to resemble the sea beyond, people ambled about, sparsely, and a long row of immigration officers sat waiting for business. Three staff helped with the purchase of my shuttle-bus ticket. I decided to test the Macau route – of more interest to visitors than Zhuhai which, as part of China proper, means getting a visa. I love Macau and if you don’t mind the hike to the port, the bridge certainly makes getting there cheaper: instead of an hour-long ferry journey costing about £17, the road trip takes just 35 minutes and costs £6.50. Once there visitors will be able to experience an astounding contrast of casinos and churches and savour the genuine traces of Portuguese heritage. We set off, briskly, on the right-hand side of a dual, three-lane carriageway. Both Hong Kong and Macau, as former colonies, are left-hand drive. Zhuhai is not. And because the bridge crosses mainland water, the characters on the road signs suddenly switch from traditional on blue background (Hong Kong) to simplified on green background (China), then back to traditional on blue (Macau). While I’m being pernickety about details: although the HZMB is described as 34 miles (55km) long, much of that consists of access roads. The actual distance it crosses the sea is 18.6 miles (30km) and it’s not continuous. It dives into a tunnel for four miles (6.7km) to allow shipping to pass overhead. Still, it’s an extraordinary engineering feat, which is why I and my fellow passengers were devoting a day’s outing to it. There was almost no traffic; coasting through miles of empty space added to the novelty of the experience. At the Macau end, the vast building – its lovely filigreed facade glowing in the late-afternoon sun – was almost deserted. It felt as if the invitations had been sent out and no one had turned up for the party. On the return journey, the sky cleared and all the billowing hills of Lantau island took on an almost-Celtic verdancy I’d never noticed before. Go soon.