China began work on one of the world’s longest bridges in Zhejiang Province On June 8．The 36km bridge over Hangzhou Bay will cut the journey between Ningbo and Shanghai by 120km． The construction work is expected to be finished in five years and the bridge will open for traffic in 2009．The project will cost 11.8 billion yuan and is thought to last 100 years． The bay itself is at the center of a densely populated region that includes Shanghai on the northern edge and the major port of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, to the south． Shanghai and Ningbo have close economic ties, but it is 304 kilometers long between the two cities．The bridge will shorten the distance by 120km．The flat structure could be the longest sea – crossing bridge in the world．According to the Guinness Book of Records, the record over water is now held by the lake-crossing bridge in Lousiana, US, at 38.5km． Jin Jianming, an official in charge of the Chinese bridge project says that the new bridge reflects China’s growing economic power． The bridge is also one part of a 5,200-km highway planned as a link between the northern province of Heilongjiang and the southernmost city of Sanya on the island province of Hainan． Work on the dam began a week after engineers began filling the Three Gorges Dam reservoir on the Yangtze River． | 
