In Guangdong, there is a bridge connecting the two major cities of Guangzhou and Dongguan, which is one of the important ring highways in the Pearl River Delta, and can also be said to be an important economic hub in the Pearl River Delta.
The Humen Bridge from Nansha in Guangzhou to Humen in Dongguan started construction in 1992 and took 7 years before it was officially accepted and opened to traffic. The Humen Bridge is of great significance to Guangdong's economic development, as it greatly shortens the distance between the Pearl River Delta regions and even plays an important role in opening up the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area project.
The historical significance of the first technical bridge
The Humen Bridge was the first traffic bridge with orthotropic beam suspension structure, which was absolutely of cross-era significance in terms of bridge technology in China at that time. The total length of the bridge is 15.76 kilometers, and the bridge body is fixed with more than 10,000 high-strength steel wires galvanized, and the steel is more than 20,000 tons.
Before 1992, the overall budget of the Humen Bridge was about 3 billion, which was definitely a huge budget at that time. In order to strengthen the bridge during construction, the final cost was 15% higher than the previous budget.
The Humen Bridge was once called a commemorative gift by the media for Hong Kong's return to the motherland. Because all the costs of the construction of the Humen Bridge were financed by Hu Yingxiang, a famous businessman in Hong Kong, and he made it happen. At that time, when the Humen Bridge was built, Hu Yingxiang promised that as long as the cost of the Humen Bridge was recovered, it would be donated to the country.
The feelings of a patriotic businessman
Hu Yingxiang was born in Hong Kong in 1935, he received a good education from a good family environment, with his own efforts, Hu Yingxiang was admitted to his favorite university, majoring in civil engineering, and after graduating from university, he went to study in Collinton, USA, for further technical studies.
As an engineer and founder, Hu Yingxiang set up his own company in Hong Kong after returning from studying in the United States, and he was one of the richest people on Hong Kong Island because of his love for architecture, and he kept improving every design, which eventually made him gain a firm foothold in Hong Kong's construction industry and real estate industry, and became one of the richest people on Hong Kong Island. Hu Yingxiang has designed many famous local buildings, such as Aberdeen and the Centre in Hong Kong, and the Kowloon Ring Road Interchange is his work. It can be said that Hu Yingxiang's contribution to Hong Kong's traffic engineering is undoubtedly huge.
As the company grew, Hu Yingxiang gradually expanded his investment to the mainland, where the transportation fortresses could not keep up with the economic growth demand, although they had improved. Hu Yingxiang, who has rich experience in building bridges and roads, sees the business opportunities, so he focuses on transportation. Among them, the more well-known ones are Humen Bridge, Guangzhou-Zhuhai Expressway, Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway and so on.
In fact, the significance of the Humen Bridge, as Hu Yingxiang's proud work, is not only to open up the transportation hub in the Pearl River Delta region, but also to the greater significance that if the Humen Bridge is completed, it will be a bright spot in China and even in the world.
At that time, China's talent for viaducts was relatively weak compared to the rest of the world, especially in the technology of large overpasses and sea-crossing bridges, and there was no professional team to provide technical support.
Even if the country gathered a group of excellent domestic bridge experts to study together, there was no good plan to put forward. In the end, Hu Yingxiang's design was adopted, from the drawing design to the material purchase, he did everything himself, and even the selection of the construction team he had to personally check, and the progress and quality of the project were also personally supervised, so that the Humen Bridge could be built and opened to traffic.
It can be said that the completion of the Humen Bridge represents that China at that time was fully capable of solving the bottleneck of rapid economic growth and fully capable of entering the ranks of the world's great powers, so Hu Yingxiang's construction of the Humen Bridge cost huge manpower, material and financial resources. In the end, the Humen Bridge was officially put into use in 1999, which undoubtedly gave Hu Yingxiang and even the entire Chinese a shot in the arm.
Since the first day of its opening, due to the particularity of its geographical location and the rapid economic development of the Pearl River Delta region, the Humen Bridge has nearly one million vehicles passing through every day, which means that the Humen Bridge has nearly 3 million yuan of income every day.
Soon, the cost of the Humen Bridge was recovered in just a few years to achieve profitability, but in the face of such huge benefits, Hu Yingxiang was unmoved, and donated the Humen Bridge to the country according to his previous promise. In an interview with the media, he only said lightly: "I am Chinese and will never forget my country." ”
When the Humen Bridge was opened to traffic, Hu Yingxiang had already begun preparations for the construction of the Zhuhai-Hong Kong-Macao Bridge, and began to lay out the bridge between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland. The development of the Pearl River Delta in recent years is obvious to all, and the Humen Bridge is now officially owned by the state, as an important economic hub in the Pearl River Delta region, it is still carrying the future of the country's economy in the wind and rain.
Now that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has been officially put into use as a project of the century, it is hoped that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will continue to carry economic exchanges between Hong Kong, Macao and the inland in the future, and shine as a link between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the three places.
The essence of a businessman in the face of national righteousness
We often say that the bustle of the world is for profit, and the prosperity of the world is for profit. Business seems to be more reasonable and rational for today's society, but it also lacks a lot of national righteousness. Perhaps it is the times that create heroes, and the social form at the beginning of reform and opening up, there will be more patriotic, hard-working businessmen who save the country, and a lot of country-oriented righteousness has been added to the business legends. Hu Yingxiang is one of them.
As a patriotic entrepreneur Hu Yingxiang, he strategized, cared about the country's economic development, and made great contributions to the country's infrastructure, especially in the early days of reform and opening up, many of his investment projects have brought convenience to the country and the people, which is worthy of our respect. And as a Chinese, Hu Yingxiang can put the general interests of the nation before interests and personal interests after national construction.
Whether a country is prosperous or not does not depend on the number of troops, nor on the number of national resource reserves, but on the lack of plastic development in the future of the country. For China, our future needs more patriotic sentiments like Hu Yingxiang to support and resonate, and make selfless contributions to the infinite possibilities of the motherland's future.