China opens world’s longest sea bridge

It connects Asia's financial hub, Hong Kong, with the southern mainland city of Zhuhai and the gambling enclave of Macau

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday officially opened the world's longest sea bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China, significantly cutting the travel time from between the three territories from three hours to just 30 minutes.

The 55-km-long crossing that cost a whopping USD 20 billion is dubbed as an engineering feat carrying economic and political significance at a time when Beijing is seen tightening its grip over its semi-autonomous territories.

It connects Asia's financial hub, Hong Kong, with the southern mainland city of Zhuhai and the gambling enclave of Macau, across the waters of the Pearl River Estuary with a snaking road bridge and underwater tunnel.

It took nine years to complete the bridge due to delays, budget overruns, corruption prosecutions and the deaths of workers.

President Xi inaugurated the bridge at a special ceremony held in Zhuhai, in southern China's Guangdong Province, attended by about 700 guests, including the leaders of Hong Kong and Macau.

The bridge will be opened for regular traffic from Wednesday.

Though supporters of the bridge promote it as an engineering marvel that will boost business and cut travel time, but critics termed it as a "white elephant" and said it is one more way to integrate Hong Kong into China as fears grow that the city's cherished freedoms are being eroded.

The critics also dubbed the bridge as a "blood and sweat project" noting that 10 workers have died and more than 600 were injured during its construction, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

China claims credit for building the world's longest bridge, the 164.8km-long Danyang-Kunshan Grand viaduct on the Beijing- Shanghai high speed railway.