200 storeys tall, with an 800-metre-high café, crossing the “crack in the Earth” in just two minutes. The Huajiang Canyon Bridge in China is the world’s highest bridge and the longest one built in mountain range.
Building across two peaks, an ordinary bridge would sway easily in strong crosswinds. Chinese engineers used a streamlined design to reduce wind impact, and installed a central stabilizer plate in the middle of the deck to split the wind.
To keep the main cables from getting damp and rusting, engineers embedded sensors inside them to monitor temperature and humidity in real time. If levels exceed the limit, a dehumidification system starts automatically—keeping the bridge safe for over a hundred years.
Since opening, the crossing time has dropped from two hours to two minutes, opening up an economic lifeline for mountain villages. The bridge is also a tourist destination. Its maintenance passage is now a glass viewing corridor. And an observation elevator takes you to the tower-top café for panoramic views. At night, the world’s highest bridge water-curtain light show begins, fed by karst water found during construction—irrigation first, surplus for the show.
The Huajiang Canyon Bridge turns a natural barrier into a thoroughfare. China is using advanced technology to protect both the economic and ecological security of the mountain region.
From Hong Kong, you can take the high-speed rail to Beijing and transfer to Harbin, where you can go further north to the Xiaoxing'anling forest region, following the launch of the new Harbin-Yichun High-Speed rail line which takes only 2 hours. Yet, it is the world's first high-speed rail line crossing island permafrost.
Permafrost has long been a world-class challenge in railway construction. The soil freezes and expands in winter, then thaws and collapses in summer, easily twisting and breaking the tracks.
But the challenge in Northeast China is even greater due to the larger temperature swings, uneven soil, and different freezing points. Chinese engineers developed a Chinese solution: replacing shallow permafrost with stone and burying liquid ammonia thermosyphons in deep permafrost to keep it frozen.
Beyond permafrost, China has also tackled sandstorms, karst, faults, and other complex climate and geological conditions. China's high-speed rail operating mileage has exceeded 50,000 kilometers, over 70% of the world's total. China also exports equipment and construction expertise overseas, turning Chinese solutions into global standards.
Still, China's railways are for the people. Today, 81 pairs of public-service trains run through the remote mountainous areas, with frequent stops and low fares, helping residents reach markets and students reach school.
Chinese railway serves as an economic artery, connecting 1.4 billion people closely together.
