World’s highest bridge opens in China

Updated Jan 14, 2017

The Beipanjiang Bridge in Guizhou province in southwest China, the world’s highest bridge, was opened to traffic Dec. 29. The 1,341-meter-long structure is equivalent to a 200-story building, soaring 565 meters above the Beipanjiang Valley.

Construction began in 2013, at a cost of approximately $143 million.

The bridge connects the mountainous provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, and is expected to shorten the travel time between the two to an hour and a half from the previous five hours. It is part of an extensive highway system linking Hangzhou City in eastern China’s Zhejiang province to Ruili City in southwestern Yunnan province.

In the video below, CCTV reporter Liu Yang visited the site.