Graphic: the world's longest road bridge

“If you want to grow rich, you must first build roads,” an old Chinese saying goes. The opening yesterday of the world’s longest road bridge over the sea should swell still further the coffers of the glittering metropolis that is Shanghai.

The £840 million bridge, measuring 36km, spans Hangzhou Bay to link China’s financial hub and the port city of Ningbo to the south. It will reduce travel time between the two key cities in the Yangtze delta from four hours to two and a half.

A ceremony was held in the middle of the cable-stayed bridge to mark the official opening. The bridge has been built to withstand the typhoons that sweep in from the Pacific to batter the east coast each summer. Its steel pylons are 89m long, reaching beneath a sea as deep as 60m in some places. In addition, the sections of the bridge had to be winched into position over expanses of quicksand-like mudflats.

To begin with lorries, vehicles with large loads and anything carrying dangerous chemicals will be banned. State television greeted the start of traffic on the bridge with great fanfare, devoting almost the first ten minutes of the evening news of the Labour Day holiday to the subject. Wen Jiabao, the premier, visited the southern end of the bridge in Ningbo.Private investors funded almost 30 per cent of the project, the first time that China’s private sector had been allowed to put money into a major public infrastructure work. Officials say that the capital costs should be recovered in 15 years.

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