China opened today to the public not just one or two, but amazingly four of the world’s longest over-sea bridges. Three of the bridges are part of the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway, which made its maiden trip today.

This project began in 2008, cost around US$33 billion and employed approximately 10,000 workers. It is expected to carry double the number of passengers than before (80 million versus approximately 40 million), whilst also reducing the time it takes to make the journey from 10 to less than 4 hours!

The Jiaozhou Bay bridge, which at 26.4 miles (42,4 km) is the world’s longest bridge over water and the sixth overall, connects the city of Qingdao to the suburban Huangdao over the other edge of the bay. It is two-tenths of a mile longer than the English Channel.

It appears that the Chinese, in their efforts to alleviate the congestion problems that plague their country, have really gotten used to making long bridges as 11 of the world’s 15 largest are located in China.

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