Gaoji Causeway () is a 2,212-meter-long causeway in

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

, China. It links Gaoqi in downtown Xiamen Island across the Xiamen Bay to

Jimei District () is one of six districts of Xiamen, People's Republic of China. Founded in 1992, with an area of , in 2003 it gained some territory in a reorganisation of district governments. The total local resident population is 280,000. Jimei District ha ...

on the mainland. It used to serve as a road and rail link, as well as water piping into Xiamen Island. In order to improve the water quality around Xiamen Island, part of the causeway was blasted off and removed, replaced by bridge, and it would serve only as road link. Completed in 1955, along with

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge The Wuhan Yangtze Great Bridge (), commonly known as Wuhan First Yangtze Bridge, is a double-deck road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in Wuhan, in Central China. At its completion in 1957, the bridge was the easternmost crossing of ...

, the causeway is considered one of the major construction projects in the early years of the People's Republic of China. It remained Xiamen Island's sole link with the mainland until 1991. The Gaoji Causeway has a museum devoted to its construction and history founded in 2013.

History

In early 1950s, Xiamen was on the front line of

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, as the island was not far away from

KMT The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

controlled

Kinmen Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separate ...

. The

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

had an urgent need to build a reliable supply line to the island. In 1951, inspired by the

Johor–Singapore Causeway The Johor–Singapore Causeway is a causeway consisting of a combined railway and motorway bridge that links the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia across the Straits of Johor to the district and town of Woodlands in Singapore. Historically f ...

Tan Kah Kee Tan Kah Kee (; 21 October 1874 – 12 August 1961) was a Chinese businessman, investor, and philanthropist active in Singapore and the Chinese cities of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Guangzhou. A prominent figure in the overseas Chinese c ...

from Singapore suggested to Xiamen Mayor

Liang Lingguang Liang Lingguang (; November 1916 – 25 February 2006) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician. An anti-Japanese activist in the 1930s, he led a guerrilla force under the New Fourth Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and rose ...

() that a similar causeway be built to link Xiamen Island and the mainland. The suggestion was highly regarded by

Chen Yi Chen Yi may refer to: * Xuanzang (602–664), born as Chen Yi, Chinese Buddhist monk in Tang Dynasty * Chen Yi (Kuomintang) Chen Yi (; courtesy names Gongxia (公俠) and later Gongqia (公洽), sobriquet Tuisu (退素); May 3, 1883 – June ...

, then the Party Secretary of the

CPC Central Committee The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is currently composed of 205 fu ...

East China Bureau, who wrote three letters to

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

in support of the causeway. Mao personally approved the project. Construction began in 1953, and the building site was frequently attacked by

aircraft. In January 1955, a boat loaded with workers was attacked with a loss of 76 lives. Due to the lack of

heavy equipment Heavy equipment or heavy machinery refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. ''Heavy equipment'' usually comprises five e ...

, all work was done by human labor. After its completion in October 1955, a stele was erected by the causeway with the words "Move the mountain to fill the sea" () written by

Zhu De Zhu De (; ; also Chu Teh; 1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party. Born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan, he was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...

in honour of the achievement. On April 12, 1957, the first passenger train left the

Xiamen Railway Station Xiamen railway station () is a railway station located in Xiamen, Fujian, China, on the Yingxia Railway which operated by Nanchang Railway Bureau, China Railway Corporation. Located in the south-western part of Xiamen Island, near downtown Xiam ...

, heading to the mainland along the causeway, which marked the opening of the Yingtan–Xiamen Railway. Before the completion of Xiamen Bridge in 1991, the causeway was the Xiamen Island's sole link with mainland for over thirty years. However, the embankment cut off the flow of water in the bay, which endangered the ecosystem and the survival of many species, including

lancelet The lancelets ( or ), also known as amphioxi (singular: amphioxus ), consist of some 30 to 35 species of "fish-like" benthic filter feeding chordates in the order Amphioxiformes. They are the modern representatives of the subphylum Cephalochorda ...

. In order to protect the environment, part of the embankment was blast off in 2010, and a road bridge would be built instead.

Trademark

The trademarks of many products made by local state-own companies are "Sea Dyke" (海堤,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Hǎidì; Peh-ōe-ji: Hái-thê), which refer to the causeway, to memory the history, including tea, cigarettes and soy sauce.

References

{{coord missing, Fujian Transport in Xiamen Causeways Buildings and structures in Xiamen