Qiantang River Bridge
Hangzhou
20 July 2009
The Qiantang River flows through Hangzhou, into the Hanghou Bay and out into the East China Sea. The river has the world's largest tidal bore, known as the Silver Dragon, with a wave up to 9 metres high. This is the view from the Liuhe Pagoda.
The bridge was constructed in the 1930s and was the first steel bridge to cross a major river in China, and the first to be designed and built by a Chinese engineer, Mao Yisheng. It is 1453 metres in length and has two decks, with a road over the railway. Soon after its opening in 1937, a section of the bridge was deliberately destroyed to hinder the advancing Japanese army. It was reconstructed after the Second World War.