I came across this bridge when I made a trip from Wuxi to Ningbo taking the local bus. One of the longest trans-oceanic bridges in Asia, Hangzhou Bay Bridge is more than 35km long and has a service center with restaurant and hotel at the mid-point. I wonder who would want to stay on a bridge? Humans have been building bridges since ancient times. These structures can be simple constructions or massive works of engineering. This particular bridge took five years to build (2003-2007) and was opened to the public in 2008 after extensive testing. I must say that building this bridge is an engineering feat in itself as the bridge must withstand tidal bore forces, typhoons and earthquakes.
The bridge does cut travel time considerably, otherwise you would have to take a circuitous route from Shanghai to Ningbo. The trip normally takes 4 hours but with the bridge it now only takes 2 hours.
There is a rest stop with restaurants, a viewpoint, museum and a hotel. Most of the time, the view is obscured by fog or haze, or so I heard. For this trip, the bus didn’t stop midway on the bridge as the driver had a tight schedule to meet.