{"id":186625,"date":"2018-10-23T04:56:45","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T08:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=186625"},"modified":"2018-10-23T05:02:37","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T09:02:37","slug":"china-opens-mega-bridge-linking-hong-kong-mainland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/10\/23\/china-opens-mega-bridge-linking-hong-kong-mainland\/","title":{"rendered":"China opens mega-bridge linking Hong Kong to mainland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt’s not exactly necessary, because Hong Kong is connected to mainland China in every way already, by land, by air, by sea,\u201d Mo told The Associated Press. (File Photo By Wing1990hk\/Wikimedia <\/a>commons, CC BY 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ZHUHAI,\u00a0China\u00a0\u2014\u00a0China\u00a0on Tuesday opened the world’s longest sea-crossing\u00a0bridge\u00a0linking Hong Kong to the mainland, a feat of engineering carrying immense economic and political significance.<\/p>\n

Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a ceremony in the city of Zhuhai to open the 55-kilometre (34-mile)-long\u00a0bridge\u00a0linking it to the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Digital fireworks exploded on a screen behind him as leaders of the three cities watched.<\/p>\n

The $20 billion\u00a0bridge\u00a0took almost a decade to build while incurring major delays and cost overruns. It includes an undersea tunnel allowing ships to pass through the Pearl River delta, the heart of\u00a0China’s crucial manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n

Its opening will cut travel time across the delta from several hours to just 30 minutes, something\u00a0China\u00a0hopes will bind the region together as a major driver of future economic growth. Heavily regulated traffic using permits issued under a quota system will begin flowing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0bridge\u00a0forms a physical link between the mainland and Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub that was handed over from British to Chinese control in 1997 with the assurance it would maintain its own legal and economic system for 50 years.<\/p>\n

That carries major political significance for Xi’s administration, which has rejected calls for political liberalization in Hong Kong, sparking fears Beijing will clamp down further on civil liberties before the end of the \u201cone country, two systems\u201d arrangement in 2047.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0bridge’s opening also comes a month after the inauguration of a new high-speed rail link from Hong Kong to mainland\u00a0China\u00a0that runs along a different, shorter route. That line has vastly decreased travel times but also raised concerns about Beijing’s growing influence because mainland Chinese law applies within part of the line’s Hong Kong terminus.<\/p>\n

To Claudia Mo, a Hong Kong democratic politician, the\u00a0bridge’s political significance outweighs its practical usefulness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not exactly necessary, because Hong Kong is connected to mainland\u00a0China\u00a0in every way already, by land, by air, by sea,\u201d Mo told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they still need it as a political symbol or icon to remind Hong Kong people … that you are connected to the motherland, with this very grand\u00a0bridge.\u00a0It’s almost like an umbilical cord.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Zhuhai, however, sentiments revolved around economic growth and national pride.<\/p>\n

Airline pilot Liu Gang said he’d been eagerly anticipating the opening of the\u00a0bridge, calling it a symbol of the mainland’s increasingly close ties with Hong Kong and Macau.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’ll bring us even closer together, make us more flexible, economically and in many other ways. We’re now one family,\u201d Liu said Monday afternoon while strolling along a walkway and shooting photos of the structure.<\/p>\n

Luo Fengzhi, who works in real estate, cited the\u00a0bridge\u00a0as evidence of\u00a0China’s growing economic and engineering prowess.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Chinese people, this makes them feel proud,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope that every patriotic Chinese person can come and see this great feat of engineering, and I welcome foreigners to come and see for themselves as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZHUHAI,\u00a0China\u00a0\u2014\u00a0China\u00a0on Tuesday opened the world’s longest sea-crossing\u00a0bridge\u00a0linking Hong Kong to the mainland, a feat of engineering carrying immense economic and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":186629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-dake-kang","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}