A key step toward completing the world's longest cross-sea high-speed railway bridge was completed on Tuesday, as engineers joined the northern navigation channel bridge of the Hangzhou Bay Cross-Sea Railway Bridge.
The 29.2-km-long bridge, a crucial segment of the Nantong-Ningbo high-speed railway, consists of three sections over navigation channels. Its ballastless double-track design will allow trains to run at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
Hangzhou Bay, off the east China coast, is known for some of the world's strongest tides, creating extreme conditions that test the limits of cross-sea engineering.
"We use an intelligent offshore dispatch system, which allows us to take advantage of the high tide to remove the steel beams and evacuate vessels in advance, thus ensuring the safety of vessels operating at the construction site," said Wang Yinfeng, deputy project manager of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Company.
The project is about more than setting records. Once completed, high-speed trains will cross Hangzhou Bay in just around 10 minutes.
The bridge is expected to improve transport and logistics across the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's most economically vibrant regions.
"People will no longer have to take long detours, saving significant travel time and making same-day trips between cities possible. It connects southern Jiangsu and eastern Zhejiang into a major coastal high-speed railway artery, permitting the entire Yangtze River Delta railway network more balanced," said Luo Yunfeng, head of the command department at the Shanghai Guotie Engineering and Construction Management Company.
Record-setting railway bridge marks key construction progress
As China marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, a roughly 12,500-kilometer military odyssey, German writer Christian Y. Schmidt shared his and fellow author Volker Haering's extraordinary cycling journey retracing the the historic route with local audiences in Germany.
The Long March (1934-1936) was a military maneuver by the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army that later became a defining episode in modern Chinese history, symbolizing endurance and perseverance as troops crossed some of the country's harshest terrain to establish a new revolutionary base. Some marched as far as 12,500 kilometers, enduring hunger, thirst and cold.
Schmidt and his friend, fellow writer Haering spent 138 days between 2023 and 2024, cycling nearly 7,000 kilometers along the historic route of the Chinese Red Army, starting from Ruijin County in east China's Jiangxi Province and heading northwest.
Their experiences have been compiled into a book titled "Der lange Fahrrad-Marsch: 7.000 Kilometer durch das Reich der Mitte".
Last week, Schmidt shared extraordinary journey with audiences at the Confucius Institute at Dusseldorf, drawing engagement from local attendees seeking fresh perspectives on Chinese modern history.
"I think we can take away an inspiration from this: As long as you keep moving forward, never give up, and always keep your eyes fixed on your goal, you will surely be able to keep going. And if you encounter difficulties along the way, you just have to find ways to overcome them," said Schmidt.
The presentation prompted reflections on endurance and modern development among the German audience.
"Mao Zedong once said, 'Nothing is impossible in the world if you dare to scale the heights.' I think this is precisely the spirit demonstrated during the Long March. Who could have imagined that after enduring such hardship, victory could still be achieved in the end? I think that is the lesson we can draw from it. In a sense, the memory of the Long March seems deeply etched into the genes of future generations," said Kneppel, an attendee.
"China's development is indeed nothing short of a miracle. China has achieved astonishing leaps in technological development. Driven by the government, China displays tremendous vitality, focus, and purposeful effort. The Chinese government unites people from all over the country to march toward the exact same goal, and I have witnessed this with my own eyes," said Maria, another attendee.
German writer shares 7,000 km Long March cycling journey with audiences
