Longest Cross-Sea Bridge
The construction of the world’s longest cross-sea bridge finished and it opened last Tuesday. The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge is 55 kilometres long, and it reduces travel time from 4 hours to just 45 minutes.
People originally scheduled the launch for 2016, but the bridge was beset by a variety of problems.
Many Hong Kong activists see the project as a political statement. Hong Kong politician Claudia Mo said that Hong Kong is already connected to mainland China in every way (land, air and sea). Yet China, she claimed, needed the bridge as a political symbol to remind Hongkongers that they are connected to the motherland.
Difficult words: launch (opening), beset (troubled), claim (state, argue), motherland (the country of origin).
