This Day, That Year: June 20

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On June 20, 1991, the Nanpu Bridge was completed in Shanghai.

The bridge, which prominent Chinese-American engineer Tung-Yen Lin helped to design, was pivotal in solving the transportation bottleneck that affected the city at that time.

The bridge has a main span of 428 meters, linking Pudong and Puxi. It opened to the public on Dec 1, 1991, as seen in the item on March 5, 1992, from China Daily.

In 1993, its sister bridge - the Yangpu Bridge - opened to the public, connecting the city's Yangpu district to Pudong New Area.

With a total length of 8,354 meters and a span of 602 meters, it was the longest of its kind in the world at that time.

Because of economic development, bridge building has proceeded at a rapid pace in China in recent decades.

In 2008, the Sutong Yangtze River Bridge was opened. The cable-stayed bridge has a span of 1,088 meters. It integrates Nantong, Jiangsu province, into a one-hour traffic circle with Shanghai.

In December, 2009, the Xihoumen Bridge was opened to the public. Built on the Zhoushan archipelago, it is the world's second-longest suspension bridge with a main span of 1,650 meters.

In October, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the world's longest sea bridge, was officially opened. Hailed as an engineering wonder, the 55-kilometer bridge aims to stitch the cluster of 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area closer together.

After the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge is another ambitious mega transportation infrastructure project in the Pearl River Delta.

It connects two major cities in the Greater Bay Area: Shenzhen on the eastern side of the Pearl River and Zhongshan on the western side.

Construction of the bridge started in December 2016, with completion expected in 2024.

The 24-km engineering feat will consist of a series of bridges, islands and tunnels. It will be the world's first eight-lane undersea tunnel.