A ceremony was held on July 7 for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge undersea tunnel to mark the completion of the main structure of the world’s longest cross-sea bridge. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge is a super large sea-crossing passage, 55 km in length. The most difficult technique is the bridge-island-tunnel main project, which is about 29.6 kilometers long. [Photo/Xinhua]

The main structure of world’s longest sea bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao was completed Friday, the builders said.

It took seven years to build the bridge, which will be open at the end of the year, said Zhu Yongling, director of the management bureau of the bridge.

The main structure measures 29.6 kilometers, consisting of a 22.9-km bridge section and 6.7-km underground tunnel. The bridge’s total length is 55 kilometers.

“The bridge passed all engineering risks, and we will prepare it for public use in a few months,” Zhu said.

Lin Ming, chief engineer of China Communications Construction Company, said they tackled great engineering challenges in building the bridge.

It used 420,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 60 Eiffel Towers, and consumed 1.08 million cubic meters of cement.

Dubbed “the most technologically complicated bridge,” it crosses shipping lanes in the Lingding Ocean.

“We had to use immersed tubes. Due to lack of experience, it took us 96 hours to lay the first tube in the ocean, and many of the engineers and workers hardly slept for four consecutive days,” said Yin Haiqing, a leading engineer.

The bridge management bureau also issued a standard for the quality of cement.

“We needed several sections to go to work simultaneously, so we had 16 cement mixing stations in operation at the same time, and we ensured the cement they produced were of the same standard,” said another engineer Lu Huaying.

Designers also minimized the impact to the environment when building the bridge, which runs water that is home to Chinese white dolphins.

During construction, the number of the dolphins rose from 1,400 in 2009 to 2,100 in 2016, according to the management bureau.

The Y-shaped bridge will cut travel time between Hong Kong and Zhuhai from three hours to just 30 minutes, further integrating cities in the Pearl River Delta, said Wei Dongqing, deputy secretary of the management bureau’s Communist Party Committee.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) announced Friday that three former senior officials have been charged with violations including taking bribes.

The three officials facing legal action are Wang Min, former Party chief of Jilin and Liaoning provinces, Wu Tianjun, former member of the standing committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Henan Provincial Committee, and Yao Zhongmin, former chairman of the board of supervisors at China Development Bank (CDB).

Luoyang City People’s Procuratorate in central China’s Henan Province filed the charge against Wang with Luoyang Intermediate People’s Court.

According to the indictment, Wang took advantage of his various posts to seek benefits for others, accepted “a huge amount” of bribes, and embezzled public funds while he served as Party chief in Jilin.

Wang, who is notorious for being responsible for serious electoral fraud, was also charged with dereliction of duty. His negligence had resulted in “major losses in the national and people’s interests and had an especially vile social impact,” according to the indictment.

Prosecutors filed the cases of Wu and Yao to the intermediate people’s courts in the cities of Xiangyang, Hubei and Baoding, Hebei respectively, with both indicted for taking advantage of their posts to seek benefits for others and accepting “a huge amount” of bribes.

A speech given by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the gathering to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland has been published by the People’s Publishing House.

The gathering on July 1 also saw the inauguration of the fifth-term government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The publication is available at Xinhua Bookstore outlets nationwide, the publisher said Friday.

China on Friday commemorated the 80th anniversary of the beginning of nationwide war against Japanese aggression.

A ceremony was held at the Museum of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression near Lugou Bridge, also known as Marco Polo Bridge, where Japan’s full-scale invasion of China began on July 7, 1937.

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said at the ceremony that the war prompted national awakening and unity, changed the destiny of the Chinese nation, and safeguarded justice and world peace.

Any attempt to deny or whitewash the history of invasion and any deed to undermine trust between nations run counter to the historical trend, Liu said.

About 1,000 people, including veterans and relatives of the fallen, attended the ceremony, which was presided over by Liu Qibao, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

On July 7, 1937, Japanese soldiers attacked Chinese forces at the Lugou Bridge in suburban Beijing, which is recognized as the start of nationwide war against Japanese invasion. Actually, the Chinese people’s struggle against Japanese aggression started in September 1931 when Japanese troops began their invasion of northeast China.

A total of 44 people have been died or missing after floods hit Ningxiang County in central China’s Hunan Province, local flood prevention headquarters said Friday.

Heavy downpours pounded the county since June 22, leading to the area’s worst natural disaster in 60 years. A total of 44 people died or remain unaccounted for, the headquarters said.

About 815,000 people, or 56 percent of the county’s population, suffered property losses in the floods, it said.

In Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to the south, flood left 20 people dead and 14 missing. Around 20,000 houses collapsed or were damaged.