has made it a tourist show

On September 28, China sumo a new one megaconstruction to his increasingly unbarkable list. After less than four years of work, THE BRIDGE OF THE GRAND CANYON OF HUAJIANG It became the highest bridge in the world. It is a weight argument for the project to capture worldwide, but beyond its engineering records, the bridge has become an example for other reasons: His tourist ambition.

It has a fantasy waterfall and a restaurant at the top of one of its columns.

Another megaestructure in Guizhou. The works began in January 2022. Far from being a whim, a bridge of these characteristics in A region like Guizhou It is essential if you want to meet the objective of the country to interconnect all corners as much as possible. Approximately 90% of Guizhou are mountains and throatswhich makes a trip that could take minutes. That is why the area is known as the “Bridge Museum” due to both their number and their complexity.

In the case of the Huajiang Grand Canyon bridge, we are talking about a construction with a length of 2,890 meters, a main section of 1,420 meters (among the towers) that is 625 meters above the Beipan River. The towers rise to 776 meters and the set is what dethroned the Junge bridge over the Beipan River itself as the highest in the world.

Balance between investment and return. Just before their inauguration, the authorities tested their resistance by causing almost 100 trucks will travel at the same time through the vain For five days. A total of 3,000 tons that the huge cables, the 439,000 m³ of concrete and 49,000 tons of steel passed without problem. It is estimated that the bridge has cost about 280 million dollars and allows you to spend in a couple of minutes on the other side of the mountain, something for which you had to invest more than an hour.

The doubt was to what extent China would recover the investment with this megaconstruction that does not stop joining rural areas. Yes, the country wants to create a series of arteries to foster trade And tourism, but recovering the money was something that was in the air. But, precisely, the key may be in tourism not from one side of the bridge to another: but turning the structure into the protagonist.

Interstellar coffee. Almost literally. Located in one of the towers, already 775 meters high, we have the ‘Interestle Coffee‘. It is a restaurant to take something while enjoying a privileged view. The trip to coffee itself must be impressive thanks to a elevator panoramic that amounts to 207 meters at a speed of four meters per second to arrive in less than a minute. Only for its location, you already have the interest of being one of the restaurants at more height in the world.

From Turisteo to the bridge. But not only have the bridge built with that technical stop for coffee in mind: they wanted to turn it into a tourist destination for their own merits. To start, it has a waterfall that can ‘shoot’ water to the river forming different patterns, but it is also a destination for those who want to hiking 625 meters with a glass floor or for those who want to practice something more extreme.

In this video of ‘El Paseo de Kai’ we can see different activities On Bridge:

2×1. It is a way to take advantage of this exceptional height for more than to connect two points and the truth is that it is nothing new. Bridges like Balinghe or that of Pingtang They already exceeded that traditional concept of “bridge as a mere passage facilitator” to become tourist destinations.

It is something we have also seen in constructions such as the three throats that not only can Move the Earth’s rotation axisbut it has a museum that documes the construction, an example of operation of the dam itself and Multiple observation points.

Therefore, the new highest bridge in the world is not only an achievement in civil engineering, but an innovation in that integrated tourism development that can be the one that helps recover what is invested in infrastructure.

Images | Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism of Guizhou