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China is a great country with a brilliant culture of bridge construction. With a vast territory, topographically higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast, the country is networked with rivers. The best-known valleys of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Pearl River, which are the cradles of the Chinese nation and her brilliant culture, are becoming the natural museum of bridge. Throughout the history, the Chinese people have erected thousands of bridges, which form an important part of her culture.
Two thousand years ago, Ancient Chinese bridges were universally acknowledged and had enjoyed high prestige in the bridge history of both the East and the West, the ancient Chinese architects developed iron suspension bridges and daring arch designs that had no rivals in the west until the coming of the industrial age.
Since the rapid development after reforming and opening-up to the world, the bridge construction in China has made great success. In the late 1980s, China had more than 140,000 highway bridges, totally 4,000 kilometers in length. Statistics shows, by the end of 2004, 321,600 bridges have been built in China, with a total length of 13,376.40 kilometers.
The success of Runyang Bridge over Yangtze River marked a milestone of modern bridge construction in China. According to China National Highway Network Plan, the construction of bridges is on the highlight of the transport infrastructure construction since the 1990s. According to Mr. Feng Maorun, Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Communications, there would be one hundred bridges across the Yangtze River by 2020, in line with the three-phase target set by Ministry of Communications of China to "reduce the current intensity of traffic by 2010, meet overall demand from social and economic developments by 2020 and realize the modernization of traffic by 2050, bridge construction is stepping into a new stage.
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