2013 High Bridge Trip Photo Album

2013 China High Bridge Trip Photo Album
Hubei and Chongqing Provinces

The 3-week 2013 High Bridge trip was another grand adventure through the mountains of Western China to visit the world's 10 highest bridges as well as many other spans and several spectacular national parks. Our guests included 3 retirees made up of British dentist Lee Choong and engineering twins John and Ray Morrison of Australia. Rounding out the group of bridge fans was Canadian 'In the Wake of Tacoma' bridge book author Richard Scott. Our translator was yet another energetic Tongji University bridge engineering student with the famous name of Bruce Lee. On board for the second year in a row was our trusty driver Mr. Chen who navigated us safely along more then 2,000 miles / 3,500 kilometers of often treacherous roads.

If there was one word to describe the 2013 trip it would be HOT! Record temperatures were being broken throughout many parts of China during our 3 week trek and it often made it difficult to want to get out of the comfortable confines of our air conditioned mini-van to snap some photos of a bridge. Luckily our group of gray-haired grandpas were up for anything and never hesitated or showed fear to visit any bridge I wanted to visit whether it required dodging highway traffic, climbing over a wall, hoping on a boat, hiking along a creek or taking a concrete slide down into a canyon.

Our new rental car held up well as it was put through an unusually high amount of abuse along more miles of rough, bumpy and broken roads then all of my previous China trips combined. The weather was only sunny half the time but we did manage to evade any rain for nearly the entire trip. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food even if they did not always know what kind of vegetable they were eating but by the end of the trip we all knew what kinds of meats we liked or wanted to avoid.

We are eternally gratefull to the Chinese engineers and authorities we met who were kind, generous and always willing to let us climb on their bridges like children in a playground. These surprise tours took us above and below some of the most amazing spans in the history of bridge construction including an elevator ride up one of the world's tallest bridge towers, a walk through one of the world's largest suspension bridge trusses and a precarious hike across a chicken-wire footbridge nearly 300 meters high. A special thanks to Liupanshui County engineer Zhou Ping and the wonderful Pung family who treated us like royalty in their own personal kingdom - the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Park. Finally a thanks to all the Chinese locals who were always friendly and often curious as to why we would travel halfway around the world to visit their remote town or bridge.

Look for an even more exciting Chinese in adventure in 2014 when we visit more than 75 of the world's highest spans including first ever construction site visits to the highest road and railway bridges on earth!

The special spans visited during the first week included Yingwuzhou, Siduhe, Zhijinghe, Tieluoping, Longtanhe, Shuanghekou, Xiaohe, Caijiagou and Qiancobei Bridges as well as a visit to Western China's most populous city of Chongqing where the world's longest span arch and beam bridges reside in the form of Chaotianmen and Shibanpo.

Our first meal together at a great dumpling restaurant near Tongji University. On the left is Richard Scott with twin brothers Ray and John Morrison. Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com

All of my China trips seem to begin at Tongji University in Shangahi which has the best and most extensive bridge engineering courses of any school in China. Image by Richard Scott.

Image by John Morrison.

Tongji also has China's only Bridge Engineering library with hundreds of unique journals and books that can only be found here. Image by John Morrison.

The Shanghai Tower had just had just been topped out in August as the world's 2nd tallest skyscraper. Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com

Our pre-trip day in Shanghai included a visit to Tongji University where scaled down versions of China's tallest skyscrapers are tested for earthquake resilience on giant shake tables. Image by Richard Scott.

The Shanghai Tower on the left surpassed the Shanghai World Financial Center on the right to become China's tallest skyscraper. Others will surpass both of them in the years to come. Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com

Image by Eric Sakowski / HighestBridges.com

I have known bridge engineer Shijie Du for more then 8 years since our first bridge trip in 2006. He now works across the street from Tongji University at the famous Tongji Architectural Design and Research Institute. He gave us an evening tour of the modern building where many of its many architectural models are on display. Image by Richard Scott.

There is even a model of the TJARD building headquarters that was once a major bus station. Image by Richard Scott.

Shijie Du and Bruce Lee watch the Morrison brothers battle each other with a game of Ping Pong. Image by Richard Scott.

Our first night was spent at Tonji University's Guest House. Image by Richard Scott.

We spent the afternoon along Shanghai's famous tourist street - East Nanjing Road. Image by John Morrison.

Shanghai's famous Urban Planning Center overlooking the People's Park. Image by Richard Scott.

2013 High Bridge Trip Photo Album

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