Saudi Arabia invited to talks on the Ukraine war in Jeddah over the weekend. Representatives from more than 40 countries came. And unlike the previous round in Copenhagen, China also accepted the invitation this time.
Some might already see this as a turn away from Russia, but Michael Radunski takes a much more sober view. Beijing simply acts in its own self-interest, even in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah. China will not abandon its partner so easily. And peace in Ukraine remains a distant prospect.
They felt lost in unfamiliar surroundings, hardly familiar with Germany, let alone with the Western mentality: Chinese sailors in Hamburg. To this day, Hamburg is home to the world’s only Chinese seamen’s home. It dates back a hundred years. Christian Domke Seidel tells the remarkable story of the Chen family, the fourth generation to run this unique seamen’s home.
On a personal note, allow me to extend my congratulations: Today, Table.Media will publish its 500th issue of Europe.Table. Five hundred briefings packed with news on European politics in Brussels and in-depth analyses of EU laws and regulations. On (almost) every weekday since 3 August 2021, the team led by Till Hoppe delivers topicality, relevance and journalistic excellence. Click here for a free trial.
The assessment of the talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the Russian attack against Ukraine is surprisingly positive at the start of the week. Although the 40 states did not present a joint final declaration, many consider China’s participation in the negotiations a success.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calls the attendance of China’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui a “significant breakthrough.” In the Financial Times, one European diplomat said China “appeared constructive” and “keen to show that [it] is not Russia.” His conclusion: “[The] mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated.”
China has indeed been making moves in this regard. Beijing refused to participate in similar talks in Copenhagen in the summer. Since then, Beijing’s displeasure with Moscow has grown: Developments on the battlefields are increasingly disadvantageous for Russia, and the failure to renew the grain agreement affects China as the largest buyer of Ukrainian wheat in particular.
But apart from its participation, China did not put anything new on the table in Jeddah. Li Hui once again presented China’s peace plan and expressed his respect for the principles of the UN Charter. “All this is known, but it does not bring any tangible changes,” Alexander Gabuev told Table.Media. The director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center points out that the participants in Jeddah simply avoided critical issues, such as Russian troops on Ukrainian territory. This is how you find consensus without substance.
And so, the hope that China will turn away from its partner Russia is more wishful thinking than reality. Bilateral trade is growing to ever-new heights, and China and Russia are also strengthening their military cooperation, most recently with large joint naval and air force exercises off Alaska.
Li Hui’s visit to Jeddah is more of a Chinese maneuver. After all, China primarily pursued its own interests in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
Beijing aims to:
What China wants above all is clearly reflected in the statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing. “All parties positively commented on Li Hui’s attendance, and fully backed China’s positive role in facilitating peace talks,” the statement on Monday said. Li had held extensive talks and “further consolidated international consensus.” China will continue to strengthen dialogue based on its 12-point peace proposal, and “accumulate mutual trust,” it said.
Most recently, the United States and Europe have increased diplomatic pressure on China. They demanded China live up to its responsibility as a veto power in the UN Security Council and a self-proclaimed global security actor. The criticism from Europe is particularly important for China: Beijing does not want to lose this important partner in the struggle with the USA.
Another goal behind China’s participation in Jeddah is: Beijing wants to further expand its influence in the Middle East. For instance, China brokered an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia a few months ago. Both countries provide large quantities of oil, which helps Beijing to diversify its energy demand – on top of the already very cheap gas supplies from Russia. The Gulf states are considered important partners in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Iranian military advisor Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi even expressed the hope that the “post-US era in the Persian Gulf region has just started.” It is not quite there yet. However, the US television channel CNN recently noted: “China has shattered the assumption of US dominance in the Middle East.”
One of the most important partners for China here is Saudi Arabia. Once a close partner of the United States, Saudi Arabia has steadily distanced itself from Washington in recent years. China wants to use this estrangement to its advantage. This is probably one of the reasons why Saudi Arabia has now been given the status of a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – a prime example of how China establishes alternative structures to Western-dominated institutions.
Gabuev sees it similarly: “It would have been a big diplomatic mistake for China not to take part in the talks with forty other countries,” said the China-Russia expert to Table.Media. “However, I see no signs that Beijing’s non-binding participation in Jeddah will translate into concrete measures, such as putting pressure on Russia to end the war in the way the West and Kyiv hope.”
And so Saudi Arabia hails itself as a new mediator and China as a responsible actor, while the Western nations cling to their hopes. But: China will only do something substantial if offered something in return.
Let the other sailors spend their money in brothels. For beer and Korn and whatever else promises distraction on the Reeperbahn. But not the Chinese. Because the Chinese, at least according to Martin Chen, head of the Home for Chinese Sailors in Hamburg, are family people. Hard-working and pragmatic to boot. That’s why his father founded the first branch in Eppendorf. Of all places, Chinese sailors were supposed to stay in the mansion district between merchants and gentlemen’s clubs since 1962.
China had experienced a civil war and a tragic famine. Some sailors left their families in abject poverty for years. Chen Chung Chin, Martin’s father, lured his compatriots away from the port so that they could send their wages back home instead of spending them in Germany. That was 60 years ago. A lot has happened since then. Both in China and in Hamburg. The Chen family recently sold their mansion in Eppendorf. The sailors’ home is now located in Niendorf – a district with many single-family houses with gardens, an Autobahn feeder road and an even greater distance to the port.
The Chen family history began to intertwine with the city of Hamburg during the First World War. In 1915, Chen Chi Ling, Martin’s grandfather, came to the Hanseatic city and founded a sailors’ club five years later. Empowered by maritime shipping, the Chinese community in Hamburg continued to grow. A Chinese quarter developed in the Schmuckstraße – an alley that runs parallel to the Reeperbahn and ends in the Grosse Freiheit.
One that the Nazis did not spare. Chen helped many of his fellow countrymen escape by putting them on ships. Chen himself escaped on the Trans-Siberian Railway. During the three-month journey home, his family already believed he did not make it. Because on 13 May 1944, the Gestapo conducted the so-called Chinesenaktion: Anyone who was still in Hamburg was arrested, mistreated or sent to a concentration camp. Chen lost everything.
Back in China, he opened a candy factory. Many of the countrymen he had once saved had settled in his hometown of Ningbo. A place that had nothing in common back then with the metropolis of 10 million people today. His many friendships also saved his life. Thanks to his many supporters, the communists merely expropriated the capitalist from Germany in 1949.
He fled back to Hamburg via Hong Kong. Together with his son Chen Chung Chin, he founded several laundries and began – as he had done ten years before – to arrange jobs for Chinese sailors on ships. If they needed a place to sleep, they could simply spend the night in one of the laundries. It was not until 1962 – when Martin had also followed them to Hamburg – that the family founded the sailor’s home in Hamburg.
It was the heyday of what is now only seafaring romanticism. Compared to the decades before, the world was living in peace and growing smaller. And at the same time, the freight container had not yet sterilized the sector. Seafaring was hard work and adventure. Well over 30 men would toil for months at sea to bring carpets, spices and fruit from exotic lands.
Back in Hamburg, the ships remained in port for days until the dockworkers had finally unloaded the cargo. During this time, the Chinese had a second home in the Chinese Sailor’s Home. With recipes from the People’s Republic, books in Chinese and later even video and music cassettes from their homeland and satellite television. On top of that, there was (and still is) a unique service. The Chen family takes care of the bureaucratic hurdles: Entry and exit papers, insurance, job search and even pension claims. They even help plan funerals at Hamburg’s two Chinese cemeteries.
None of that has changed to this day. Everything else has. Shipping, for one thing. Today, large container ships can manage with a crew of 18. There are no more kitchen helpers and launderers – the ship crews have to do these chores themselves. The laytime is only a few hours. Sailors only visit the seamen’s missions at port to play billiards (because the floor doesn’t sway), to enjoy a little peace and quiet (because there is no roaring engine), eat a snack and buy cheap chocolate. If they actually have shore leave planned, they have booked airline tickets home online in advance. Hardly anyone has to or can spend the night in a sailor’s home nowadays.
And on the other hand, China has developed. The country is now an economic power and offers qualified people appropriate job opportunities. Spending six months on a ship is only worthwhile for Chinese seafarers if the ship sails under the German flag. Then the income is high enough that a Chinese person can be persuaded to spend a longer time apart from his family, Chen explains.
And that too only if the Chinese sailor does not speak English. While it is the universal language at sea, it is not widely spoken in China. If a sailor speaks English, he can often earn more money in China than on a German ship. Because there are hardly any cargo ships under German flag, the Chinese Sailors’ Home places its guests mainly on research ships, ferries and yachts. In the hallway hangs a group photo of a 60-strong crew traveling on a 142-meter-long luxury yacht under the Saudi flag. Amidst them: The Chinese launderers.
The Home for Chinese Sailors itself is an association. Those who wish to use its services must be members. Members are mainly recruited in rural regions of the People’s Republic by friends and acquaintances. In Hamburg, Martin is helped by his older brother Michael and his son Markus. And so the association is slowly passing into the hands of the fourth generation. The recent Covid crisis was a hectic phase, because testing, hygiene regulations and travel planning were a bureaucratic monster that needed to be tamed. Things have calmed down in the meantime.
The offshoots of Typhoon Doksuri continue to cause severe flooding: According to official figures, 14 people died in the Chinese city of Shulan over the weekend. Parts of the Songhua River and its tributary Nenjiang continued to be dangerously high following record rainfall, local authorities said. State media reported that three officials, including the deputy mayor of Shulan, a city of 587,000 people, were among the dead.
Northeast China continues to be ravaged by heavy rainfall since the typhoon made landfall in the southern province of Fujian two weeks ago. More than 1.2 million people have been evacuated in Hebei alone. The authorities have not yet disclosed the total death toll for the entire country. rtr/flee
At the end of July, Pan Gongsheng became the new governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). The 60-year-old succeeds Yi Gang, who has reached the official retirement age of 65. Shortly before, Pan had been appointed Secretary of the Communist Party at the PBOC, thus already holding one of the bank’s two senior positions.
In this double position, he now holds even greater power. This solution is not entirely new: Former governor Zhou Xiaochuan also held both offices until he resigned in 2018 and Yi Gang was appointed governor. Guo Shuqing took over as party leader at that time.
Pan is an experienced central banker. He joined PBOC in 2012, previously holding senior positions at state-owned banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China. Before that, Pan earned a Ph.D. in economics from the People’s University of Beijing in 1993. He subsequently studied at Cambridge and Harvard.
His appointment is a sign that Beijing wants continuity at the central bank at a time when the economic recovery is losing momentum. Like his predecessor Yi, Pan is considered a technocrat who has pushed reforms in areas such as the banking sector and exchange rate policy.
Beijing evidently attached great importance to expertise when filling the post. Pan is not considered a close ally of President Xi Jinping. The latter has recently filled numerous other important positions almost exclusively with loyalists.
“Pan Gongsheng’s appointment is a positive omen for continued, although still gradual, market-oriented reforms,” Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, told Bloomberg.
“I have no doubt that monetary policy will have a meaningful turn in the coming months. Maintaining economic stability is still key. We’ll see more expansionary monetary policy, but it won’t be very aggressive,” Dan Wang, chief China economist at Hang Seng Bank, told BBC.
One of Pan’s priorities will be steering the economy through the current downturn. Most recently, Beijing announced plans to boost consumption by introducing a package of measures. Relief measures have also been announced for the ailing real estate sector. Pan could give the economy a strong boost, especially with interest rate cuts by the central bank. Whether this happens, however, is ultimately not entirely in his hands.
Unlike the US Federal Reserve and European central banks, the PBOC is not independent. It reports to the State Council, China’s cabinet under Premier Li Qiang, and must obtain its approval before making important policy decisions like setting interest rates or managing the currency. Joern Petring
The Beipanjiang Bridge in China is already the world’s highest suspension bridge. But that is apparently not enough. An even higher suspension bridge will be built in the province of Guizhou. Upon completion in two years, it is expected to measure 625 meters – 60 meters higher than the previous record holder. The new bridge will cross the Huajiang Gorge. Just looking at it makes you dizzy.
Saudi Arabia invited to talks on the Ukraine war in Jeddah over the weekend. Representatives from more than 40 countries came. And unlike the previous round in Copenhagen, China also accepted the invitation this time.
Some might already see this as a turn away from Russia, but Michael Radunski takes a much more sober view. Beijing simply acts in its own self-interest, even in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah. China will not abandon its partner so easily. And peace in Ukraine remains a distant prospect.
They felt lost in unfamiliar surroundings, hardly familiar with Germany, let alone with the Western mentality: Chinese sailors in Hamburg. To this day, Hamburg is home to the world’s only Chinese seamen’s home. It dates back a hundred years. Christian Domke Seidel tells the remarkable story of the Chen family, the fourth generation to run this unique seamen’s home.
On a personal note, allow me to extend my congratulations: Today, Table.Media will publish its 500th issue of Europe.Table. Five hundred briefings packed with news on European politics in Brussels and in-depth analyses of EU laws and regulations. On (almost) every weekday since 3 August 2021, the team led by Till Hoppe delivers topicality, relevance and journalistic excellence. Click here for a free trial.
The assessment of the talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the Russian attack against Ukraine is surprisingly positive at the start of the week. Although the 40 states did not present a joint final declaration, many consider China’s participation in the negotiations a success.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calls the attendance of China’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui a “significant breakthrough.” In the Financial Times, one European diplomat said China “appeared constructive” and “keen to show that [it] is not Russia.” His conclusion: “[The] mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated.”
China has indeed been making moves in this regard. Beijing refused to participate in similar talks in Copenhagen in the summer. Since then, Beijing’s displeasure with Moscow has grown: Developments on the battlefields are increasingly disadvantageous for Russia, and the failure to renew the grain agreement affects China as the largest buyer of Ukrainian wheat in particular.
But apart from its participation, China did not put anything new on the table in Jeddah. Li Hui once again presented China’s peace plan and expressed his respect for the principles of the UN Charter. “All this is known, but it does not bring any tangible changes,” Alexander Gabuev told Table.Media. The director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center points out that the participants in Jeddah simply avoided critical issues, such as Russian troops on Ukrainian territory. This is how you find consensus without substance.
And so, the hope that China will turn away from its partner Russia is more wishful thinking than reality. Bilateral trade is growing to ever-new heights, and China and Russia are also strengthening their military cooperation, most recently with large joint naval and air force exercises off Alaska.
Li Hui’s visit to Jeddah is more of a Chinese maneuver. After all, China primarily pursued its own interests in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
Beijing aims to:
What China wants above all is clearly reflected in the statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing. “All parties positively commented on Li Hui’s attendance, and fully backed China’s positive role in facilitating peace talks,” the statement on Monday said. Li had held extensive talks and “further consolidated international consensus.” China will continue to strengthen dialogue based on its 12-point peace proposal, and “accumulate mutual trust,” it said.
Most recently, the United States and Europe have increased diplomatic pressure on China. They demanded China live up to its responsibility as a veto power in the UN Security Council and a self-proclaimed global security actor. The criticism from Europe is particularly important for China: Beijing does not want to lose this important partner in the struggle with the USA.
Another goal behind China’s participation in Jeddah is: Beijing wants to further expand its influence in the Middle East. For instance, China brokered an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia a few months ago. Both countries provide large quantities of oil, which helps Beijing to diversify its energy demand – on top of the already very cheap gas supplies from Russia. The Gulf states are considered important partners in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Iranian military advisor Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi even expressed the hope that the “post-US era in the Persian Gulf region has just started.” It is not quite there yet. However, the US television channel CNN recently noted: “China has shattered the assumption of US dominance in the Middle East.”
One of the most important partners for China here is Saudi Arabia. Once a close partner of the United States, Saudi Arabia has steadily distanced itself from Washington in recent years. China wants to use this estrangement to its advantage. This is probably one of the reasons why Saudi Arabia has now been given the status of a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – a prime example of how China establishes alternative structures to Western-dominated institutions.
Gabuev sees it similarly: “It would have been a big diplomatic mistake for China not to take part in the talks with forty other countries,” said the China-Russia expert to Table.Media. “However, I see no signs that Beijing’s non-binding participation in Jeddah will translate into concrete measures, such as putting pressure on Russia to end the war in the way the West and Kyiv hope.”
And so Saudi Arabia hails itself as a new mediator and China as a responsible actor, while the Western nations cling to their hopes. But: China will only do something substantial if offered something in return.
Let the other sailors spend their money in brothels. For beer and Korn and whatever else promises distraction on the Reeperbahn. But not the Chinese. Because the Chinese, at least according to Martin Chen, head of the Home for Chinese Sailors in Hamburg, are family people. Hard-working and pragmatic to boot. That’s why his father founded the first branch in Eppendorf. Of all places, Chinese sailors were supposed to stay in the mansion district between merchants and gentlemen’s clubs since 1962.
China had experienced a civil war and a tragic famine. Some sailors left their families in abject poverty for years. Chen Chung Chin, Martin’s father, lured his compatriots away from the port so that they could send their wages back home instead of spending them in Germany. That was 60 years ago. A lot has happened since then. Both in China and in Hamburg. The Chen family recently sold their mansion in Eppendorf. The sailors’ home is now located in Niendorf – a district with many single-family houses with gardens, an Autobahn feeder road and an even greater distance to the port.
The Chen family history began to intertwine with the city of Hamburg during the First World War. In 1915, Chen Chi Ling, Martin’s grandfather, came to the Hanseatic city and founded a sailors’ club five years later. Empowered by maritime shipping, the Chinese community in Hamburg continued to grow. A Chinese quarter developed in the Schmuckstraße – an alley that runs parallel to the Reeperbahn and ends in the Grosse Freiheit.
One that the Nazis did not spare. Chen helped many of his fellow countrymen escape by putting them on ships. Chen himself escaped on the Trans-Siberian Railway. During the three-month journey home, his family already believed he did not make it. Because on 13 May 1944, the Gestapo conducted the so-called Chinesenaktion: Anyone who was still in Hamburg was arrested, mistreated or sent to a concentration camp. Chen lost everything.
Back in China, he opened a candy factory. Many of the countrymen he had once saved had settled in his hometown of Ningbo. A place that had nothing in common back then with the metropolis of 10 million people today. His many friendships also saved his life. Thanks to his many supporters, the communists merely expropriated the capitalist from Germany in 1949.
He fled back to Hamburg via Hong Kong. Together with his son Chen Chung Chin, he founded several laundries and began – as he had done ten years before – to arrange jobs for Chinese sailors on ships. If they needed a place to sleep, they could simply spend the night in one of the laundries. It was not until 1962 – when Martin had also followed them to Hamburg – that the family founded the sailor’s home in Hamburg.
It was the heyday of what is now only seafaring romanticism. Compared to the decades before, the world was living in peace and growing smaller. And at the same time, the freight container had not yet sterilized the sector. Seafaring was hard work and adventure. Well over 30 men would toil for months at sea to bring carpets, spices and fruit from exotic lands.
Back in Hamburg, the ships remained in port for days until the dockworkers had finally unloaded the cargo. During this time, the Chinese had a second home in the Chinese Sailor’s Home. With recipes from the People’s Republic, books in Chinese and later even video and music cassettes from their homeland and satellite television. On top of that, there was (and still is) a unique service. The Chen family takes care of the bureaucratic hurdles: Entry and exit papers, insurance, job search and even pension claims. They even help plan funerals at Hamburg’s two Chinese cemeteries.
None of that has changed to this day. Everything else has. Shipping, for one thing. Today, large container ships can manage with a crew of 18. There are no more kitchen helpers and launderers – the ship crews have to do these chores themselves. The laytime is only a few hours. Sailors only visit the seamen’s missions at port to play billiards (because the floor doesn’t sway), to enjoy a little peace and quiet (because there is no roaring engine), eat a snack and buy cheap chocolate. If they actually have shore leave planned, they have booked airline tickets home online in advance. Hardly anyone has to or can spend the night in a sailor’s home nowadays.
And on the other hand, China has developed. The country is now an economic power and offers qualified people appropriate job opportunities. Spending six months on a ship is only worthwhile for Chinese seafarers if the ship sails under the German flag. Then the income is high enough that a Chinese person can be persuaded to spend a longer time apart from his family, Chen explains.
And that too only if the Chinese sailor does not speak English. While it is the universal language at sea, it is not widely spoken in China. If a sailor speaks English, he can often earn more money in China than on a German ship. Because there are hardly any cargo ships under German flag, the Chinese Sailors’ Home places its guests mainly on research ships, ferries and yachts. In the hallway hangs a group photo of a 60-strong crew traveling on a 142-meter-long luxury yacht under the Saudi flag. Amidst them: The Chinese launderers.
The Home for Chinese Sailors itself is an association. Those who wish to use its services must be members. Members are mainly recruited in rural regions of the People’s Republic by friends and acquaintances. In Hamburg, Martin is helped by his older brother Michael and his son Markus. And so the association is slowly passing into the hands of the fourth generation. The recent Covid crisis was a hectic phase, because testing, hygiene regulations and travel planning were a bureaucratic monster that needed to be tamed. Things have calmed down in the meantime.
The offshoots of Typhoon Doksuri continue to cause severe flooding: According to official figures, 14 people died in the Chinese city of Shulan over the weekend. Parts of the Songhua River and its tributary Nenjiang continued to be dangerously high following record rainfall, local authorities said. State media reported that three officials, including the deputy mayor of Shulan, a city of 587,000 people, were among the dead.
Northeast China continues to be ravaged by heavy rainfall since the typhoon made landfall in the southern province of Fujian two weeks ago. More than 1.2 million people have been evacuated in Hebei alone. The authorities have not yet disclosed the total death toll for the entire country. rtr/flee
At the end of July, Pan Gongsheng became the new governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). The 60-year-old succeeds Yi Gang, who has reached the official retirement age of 65. Shortly before, Pan had been appointed Secretary of the Communist Party at the PBOC, thus already holding one of the bank’s two senior positions.
In this double position, he now holds even greater power. This solution is not entirely new: Former governor Zhou Xiaochuan also held both offices until he resigned in 2018 and Yi Gang was appointed governor. Guo Shuqing took over as party leader at that time.
Pan is an experienced central banker. He joined PBOC in 2012, previously holding senior positions at state-owned banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China. Before that, Pan earned a Ph.D. in economics from the People’s University of Beijing in 1993. He subsequently studied at Cambridge and Harvard.
His appointment is a sign that Beijing wants continuity at the central bank at a time when the economic recovery is losing momentum. Like his predecessor Yi, Pan is considered a technocrat who has pushed reforms in areas such as the banking sector and exchange rate policy.
Beijing evidently attached great importance to expertise when filling the post. Pan is not considered a close ally of President Xi Jinping. The latter has recently filled numerous other important positions almost exclusively with loyalists.
“Pan Gongsheng’s appointment is a positive omen for continued, although still gradual, market-oriented reforms,” Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, told Bloomberg.
“I have no doubt that monetary policy will have a meaningful turn in the coming months. Maintaining economic stability is still key. We’ll see more expansionary monetary policy, but it won’t be very aggressive,” Dan Wang, chief China economist at Hang Seng Bank, told BBC.
One of Pan’s priorities will be steering the economy through the current downturn. Most recently, Beijing announced plans to boost consumption by introducing a package of measures. Relief measures have also been announced for the ailing real estate sector. Pan could give the economy a strong boost, especially with interest rate cuts by the central bank. Whether this happens, however, is ultimately not entirely in his hands.
Unlike the US Federal Reserve and European central banks, the PBOC is not independent. It reports to the State Council, China’s cabinet under Premier Li Qiang, and must obtain its approval before making important policy decisions like setting interest rates or managing the currency. Joern Petring
The Beipanjiang Bridge in China is already the world’s highest suspension bridge. But that is apparently not enough. An even higher suspension bridge will be built in the province of Guizhou. Upon completion in two years, it is expected to measure 625 meters – 60 meters higher than the previous record holder. The new bridge will cross the Huajiang Gorge. Just looking at it makes you dizzy.
