China’s President Xi Jinping launched the world’s longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China Tuesday.
Xi announced the bridge officially open at a ceremony also attended by Hong Kong’s and Macau’s city leaders at a new port terminal in the southern mainland city of Zhuhai.
“I declare the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge officially open,” Xi said as digital fireworks exploded on a screen behind him in an indoor ceremony, before leaving the stage immediately. He did not address the audience.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam had earlier spoken to thank Xi for attending in person, praising the bridge’s “magnificence”.
The 55-kilometre (34-mile) crossing, which includes a snaking road bridge and underwater tunnel, links Hong Kong’s Lantau island to Zhuhai and the gambling enclave of Macau, across the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.
It is the second major infrastructure project tying Hong Kong to mainland China to launch in a matter of weeks, after the opening of a high-speed rail link last month, and is part of a Beijing-driven strategy to create a sprawling “Greater Bay Area” economic hub.
Critics say the new multi-billion-dollar sea-bridge is one more way to integrate Hong Kong into China as fears grow that the city’s cherished freedoms are being eroded.
The mega bridge will open to traffic on Wednesday.
Building began in 2009 and has been dogged by delays, budget overruns, corruption prosecutions and the deaths of construction workers.
The launch ceremony was hastily announced last week by mainland authorities with Hong Kong lawmakers and transport companies complaining they had been left in the dark.
Supporters of the project promote it as an engineering marvel that will also boost business and cut travel time, while others see it as a politically driven and costly white elephant.
The main bridge section is considered mainland territory and Hong Kong cars and drivers travelling over it “must comply with the laws and regulations of the mainland”, according to the city’s transport department.
There was no ceremony on the Hong Kong side Tuesday, but there was a heightened police presence in coastal areas near the bridge, with officers carrying out identity checks on journalists and members of the public.
