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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
GUIYANG, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) — As the Huajiang Gorge Bridge in southwest China's Guizhou Province was shrouded in morning fog, Xie Chaoqing, a local guesthouse owner, flew his drone past the bridge's tallest support tower, capturing the awe-inspiring grandeur of the world's tallest operating bridge. He says the structure has completely changed his life.
The Huajiang Gorge Bridge, rising 625 meters above the Beipan River in the Guizhou mountains, is nearly nine times taller than San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The 2,890-meter-long structure, which spans the Huajiang Gorge, known as the "crack in the earth," is the latest link in the rapidly expanding infrastructure network of the world's second-largest economy.
Since the bridge opened to traffic in late September this year, travel time across the gorge has been reduced from two hours to just two minutes, significantly improving regional connectivity.
Local authorities are striving to transform this engineering marvel into a world-renowned tourist attraction, rivaling the popularity of Huangguoshu Waterfall, Asia's largest waterfall, located just 50 km away. From the very beginning of construction in 2022, the bridge was designed with tourism in mind.
The area around the bridge, covering more than 50 square kilometers, has been included in the plan and is being developed as a high-altitude tourism destination offering a variety of outdoor activities, including extreme sports, scientific education, sightseeing, and leisure, said Jian Jijun, deputy general manager of the Guizhou Local Transport and Investment Corporation.
Xie Chaoqing's guesthouse, located at the foot of the bridge, offers a beautiful view from its rooftop terrace. During the recently concluded National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays (October 1-8), all ten-plus rooms were booked in advance. "We had entire families coming to see the bridge. We even offered some of them a room for free," Xie Chaoqing recalls.
According to official data, 220,000 tourists visited the bridge during the aforementioned holidays. "This project has given many of us local residents a new sense of direction and purpose in life," said Xie Chaoqing, observing the steady flow of tourists.
Like many others, 43-year-old Xie Chaoqing and his wife once found themselves riding the wave of the e-commerce boom in eastern China's Zhejiang Province. A return to his hometown of Guizhou, one of China's least developed provinces, marked a career shift toward content creation. He became a social media influencer, collaborating with friends to create short videos about rural life.
While filming outdoors in May 2022, he saw the future tallest bridge in the world, still under construction, inspiring him to document its construction from start to finish. From that day on, he visited the construction site every month or every other month to capture the progress with his drone.
The completion of the bridge's main support tower in early 2024 marked a significant milestone. Despite his family's concerns, Xie Chaoqing put all other work on hold and dedicated himself to filming the final stages of construction, documenting the bridge's progress throughout all four seasons. The breathtaking, and sometimes dangerous, footage has become a veritable treasure trove of viral content for his online platform.
Currently, his account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has garnered 4.6 million likes, and his most popular video has been viewed over 70 million times. He has over 1.5 million followers across various social media platforms.
During filming, Xie Chaoqing explored every nearby hill and visited every village. "When I was a child, the journey here was a difficult trek through mountains and rivers. Now, the deep gorge has become a straightforward route," he said.
He saw an opportunity when he noticed many internet users asking about hotel accommodations in the comments section of his video about the bridge. "So, I went to Huajiang Village, which is located below the bridge, rented a house there, and converted it into a guesthouse," he said. "I had a feeling that once the bridge opened to traffic, there would be a real tourism boom here," he added.
He said the bridge's opening had completely revived the village, with its neat streets, landscaped gardens and old buildings converted into guesthouses and traditional restaurants.
“Many of my subscribers, when they make a booking, say they’re coming not only to see the bridge but also to enjoy extreme sports,” he said.
After visiting the Huajiang Gorge Bridge, social media influencer Lin Xi was so captivated by its grandeur that she decided to climb the bridge and experience the thrill of a "skywalk." She said, "This bridge is a true engineering marvel for humanity. I can't wait to experience what it's like to walk more than 600 meters above the earth's surface."
According to Xiao Yuming, head of the market development department of the aforementioned transportation and investment corporation, during the National Day holiday alone, over 1,000 visitors were able to experience the thrill of high-altitude extreme sports such as skywalking, bungee jumping, and giant swings.
Furthermore, the Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum brought two marine paleontological fossils to the bridge for display. This scientific geological exhibition aims to demonstrate the profound geological changes that have occurred in the area over the past 200 million years. Furthermore, the exhibition also featured over 50 types of cultural and creative products related to paleontological fossils.
According to Wei Qianzhu, a staff member in the museum's cultural and creative products department, the museum's sales during the eight-day holiday exceeded 50,000 yuan (about $7,040), and items such as mystery boxes featuring glow-in-the-dark paleobionts sold out almost instantly.
According to the 2025 Work Report of the Guizhou Provincial Government, Guizhou plans to enhance the role of the Huajiang Gorge Bridge to promote the integrated development of cultural tourism, agro-tourism, sports tourism and bridge-related tourism.
"This is not just a bridge, but a 'golden gate' that channels vital flows of people, goods, capital and information into our area," said Li Zuping, head of Zhenfeng County, where the bridge is located. -0-
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