The Beipan River Guanxing Highway Bridge or Beipanjiang River 2003 Bridge is a 366-metre-high

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

on the

Guanxing Highway Guanxing Highway (Simplified Chinese:关兴高速公路, Traditional Chinese:關興高速公路) connects Guanling County and the city of Xingyi, both within Guizhou Province of China. Bridge The highway crosses the Beipan River on the Beipan R ...

near Xingbei Town (Xinbeizhen),

Zhenfeng County Zhenfeng County () is a county in the southwest of Guizhou province, China. It is under the administration of the Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (; Buyei: ''Qianfxiynanf Buxqyaix Buxy ...

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The bridge has a span length of 388 metres. When it opened in 2003, it was the world's highest bridge, and it held that title until the opening of the

Hegigio Gorge Pipeline Bridge Hegigio Gorge Pipeline Bridge is, with a height of 393 metres, the world's sixth highest bridge and highest pipeline bridge. Hegigio Gorge Pipeline Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning 470 metres over the Hegigio River. It is used for transpo ...

in 2005.

Height

When the bridge was completed in 2003 it was the highest in the world, sitting 366 metres above the

Beipan River Beipan River () is a river in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, China, and part of the great Pearl River basin. Other names The upper reaches in Yunnan and Guizhou were once known as the Zangke River. Course The Beipan River passes through the mo ...

. The bridge became the second Chinese span in two years to take the record. The first was the

Liuguanghe Bridge Liuguanghe Bridge is a beam bridge at Liu Guangzhen, Guizhou, China. It held the record for world's highest bridge between 2001 and 2003, surpassing the 72-year-old, Royal Gorge Bridge, until the opening of the Beipan River Guanxing Highway B ...

in 2001. In 2009 a dam was constructed downstream from the bridge, reducing the drop to the water slightly. The Beipan River Guanxing Highway Bridge was the first suspension bridge to break the and 300-metre height thresholds (the Liuguanghe Bridge also passes these thresholds but is a beam bridge) as well as the first suspension bridge in the world to surpass the height of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

’s

Royal Gorge Bridge The Royal Gorge Bridge is a tourist attraction near Cañon City, Colorado within Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, a 360-acre (150 ha) amusement park located along the edge of the Royal Gorge around both ends of the bridge. The bridge crosses th ...

after a 74-year reign. The bridge is also the second of three

crossings to have been among the world's ten highest. The first was the

Beipanjiang River Railway Bridge The Beipan River Shuibai Railway Bridge was the world's highest railway bridge from 2001 to 2016. The bridge spans a deep canyon on the Beipan River near the city of Liupanshui in Guizhou province, China. The arch bridge, with a maximum height ...

, which opened in 2001 and was the highest train bridge in the world until 2016 when China's

Najiehe Railway Bridge The Najiehe Railway Bridge is a steel arch bridge in central Guizhou, China. With a rail height of , this is the highest railway bridge in world. The truss arch is also one of the longest arch bridges with a main span of . The bridge crosses ...

and

Qinglong Railway Bridge Qinglong Railway Bridge is the world's longest span concrete arch bridge located in Qinglong County, Guizhou. The bridge forms part of the High speed railway line between Guiyang and Kunming. It crosses the Beipan River just downstream of the G ...

were opened. The

Beipan River Hukun Expressway Bridge Beipan River Hukun Expressway Bridge is a suspension bridge near Guanling, on the border of the Anshun Prefecture, Guizhou, China. The bridge has a main span of 636 metres and is part of the G60 Shanghai–Kunming Expressway crossing the Beipan ...

, the third bridge to cross high above the Beipanjiang, opened in 2009 on the Guiyang-to-Kunming Highway with a suspension span 1,083 feet (330 m) above the river.

References

External links

on HighestBridges.com
北盘江大桥
(Beipanjiang Bridge) {{in lang, zh Suspension bridges in China Bridges in Guizhou Road bridges in China Bridges completed in 2003 2003 establishments in China Bridges over the Beipan River

Height

See also

References

External links