High bridge over Guizhou canyon

In the Chinese province of Guizhou, a highway bridge now suspends its four lanes 625 meters above a river carved between two cliffs. The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, which reaches a height of 625 meters, reduces a journey that previously required a long detour to just two minutes.

Engineering challenge in Guizhou

The Guizhou terrain has never been generous to engineers. Between the counties of Guanling and Zhenfeng, the canyon carved by the Beipan River forced drivers to take an endless detour of winding roads and cautious descents. It sometimes took two hours to connect two points that were otherwise close to each other.

Bridge construction and testing

With the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, this road ordeal has become a memory. Vehicles now cross the void in just two minutes, carried by a main span of 1,420 meters, without any pillars to support it in the center. The entire structure stretches over 2,890 meters and includes four lanes of traffic, integrated into the S57 Liuzhi-Anlong highway. The works, launched in January 2022, were completed in three years and eight months, for a cost approaching 2.1 billion yuan, or approximately 295 million dollars according to estimates relayed by Futura.

Safety and design features

Before opening to traffic in September 2025, the teams subjected the structure to a rigorous test. For five days, 96 trucks simultaneously drove on the deck to simulate maximum load, while 400 sensors monitored the tension of the cables in real time. A protocol that speaks volumes about the safety margin required before allowing the public to venture above such a chasm.

Tourist attractions on the bridge

A bridge designed as a suspended amusement park at 626 meters. With its 625 meters of void under the deck, the structure surpasses the Beipanjiang Bridge, located in the same province and capped at 565 meters. The most striking comparison remains that of the Empire State Building: the New York tower could fit entirely under the deck, with still a good margin above its spire.

Tourism and economic impact

The steel truss beams that make up the bridge's structure weigh about 22,000 tons. An engineering choice that also responded to an economic logic: to go up in height rather than dig endless tunnels into the mountain, in order to limit costs and the fatigue of drivers on long underground journeys. What truly distinguishes Huajiang is the way tourism was integrated into the project from the first plans, and not added later.

Nighttime attractions and visitor numbers

At night, a light, sound, and water show is offered twice a day. The lighting contract was awarded to the listed company Haorsai, with a laser projection designed to reflect on a 300-meter-long water screen, transforming the canyon into a natural-sized backdrop. According to the Xinhua agency, about 3.3 million visits have been recorded since the site's opening. During the 2026 Chinese New Year holidays, the bridge's tourist area alone welcomed 550,000 visits, with the nighttime shows encouraging tourists to extend their stay by an average of more than four hours.

Local economic transformation

This influx has profoundly reshaped the local economy. More than 200 restaurants and guesthouses have been established since the opening, and nearly 1,000 residents have found employment directly related to tourism, according to statements by a deputy at the National People's Congress. In the Huajiang township, some establishments are now fully booked on weekends and holidays.

Ambiguities in records

One question of nuance, quite revealing of how information sometimes circulates around such records, remains. The duration of the avoided journey varies according to sources: two hours according to Chinese media and CGTN, about 70 minutes according to other surveys. A Guinness World Records mention of a height of 626.01 meters also circulates on some sites, without confirmation from a recognized press source to date.

Engineering achievement and future

The Huajiang Bridge remains, however, a rather striking demonstration of what modern engineering can achieve when it decides to transform a geographical obstacle into an attraction in its own right.