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Aizhai, belonging to Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, is located at the fault of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with high mountains and steep slopes. Aizhai Grand Canyon is the only way for Jicha Expressway, and Aizhai Bridge across the cliff is the main artery passage for Hunan to enter western provinces such as Sichuan and Chongqing.

Aizhai bridge across the canyon.

Back in time, it used to be the most congested place on Xiangchuan Highway. The steep and rugged Panshan Highway is called "the wonder of Baili Highway". From the reform and opening up to the new era, Aizhai has benefited from Aizhai Bridge, which has greatly changed the face of the mountain village, made people's lives richer and broadened their horizons. Aizhai Bridge has won the attention of the world as a "network celebrity", and the bridge has surpassed the value and significance of the bridge itself.

The Bridge of Power makes the steep wonders the most beautiful scenery in China.

"Hunan Tongzhi" records: "In western Hunan, Wuling Mountain and Xuefeng Mountain are arc-shaped complex, stretching the border. Qian Shan is full of valleys and peaks, steep and rugged, winding around the flow and passing through mountains. It's hard to climb ... "

1936, Xiangchuan Highway, the first expressway in Xiangxi, was opened to traffic. This strategic highway with national defense significance played an important role in the anti-Japanese war by insisting that the whole nation War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the national government moved its capital to Chongqing and a large number of government agencies and enterprises moved to the southwest, and shouldering the task of importing international aid materials and transporting war preparation materials to China.

There is a section of Aizhai Panshan Highway not far from Jishou City, the capital of western Hunan, which is called "a century-old highway wonder".

The winding Aizhai Panshan Highway.

This winding road is only 6.25 kilometers long, with a vertical height of more than 400 meters, a slope of more than 70 degrees and a horizontal distance of less than 100 meters. The traffic in front is like driving head on. The widest part of the expressway is no more than 7 meters, and the narrowest part is less than 4 meters. Two cars can't pass at the same time in the narrowest place, which is the most congested place on Xiangchuan Highway.

Since the reform and opening up, with the increasing traffic volume, traffic jams on Aizhai Panshan Highway often occur, one for most of the day.

Zhang Yongsheng, a native of Yongshun County in western Hunan, has lived in Jishou for decades. He recalled: "Before returning to Yongshun's hometown in the New Year, you have to go through the short village. At six or seven o'clock in the morning, the bus departed from Jishou, and everyone laughed or was sleepy along the way. Just arrived at Aizhai Panshan Highway, the passengers sat up one by one, craned their necks to look forward, and their expressions became tense. The driver was careful and drove very slowly. When it comes to ice and snow, you have to put snow chains on the wheels. When there is no traffic jam, you can reach Huayuan County around 90 am. The driver will let everyone get off for a meal, and then continue on their way, and they can arrive at Yongshun at one or two in the afternoon. "

In order to strengthen the contact with Chongqing and other western provinces and cities and change the backward traffic situation in western Hunan, the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government decided to build the Jicha Expressway. Aizhai Grand Canyon is the only way for Jicha Expressway, and how to cross the natural barrier became the focus and difficulty at that time.

Aizhai Bridge and the Panshan Highway below reflect each other. Figure correspondent Long Tao

2065438+March 3 1, in 2002, Aizhai Bridge was officially opened to traffic, and the entire line of Xiang-Yu Expressway, one of the eight expressways in western China, was connected. In the past, it took at least 30 minutes to get from one side of the valley to the other, but now it takes only tens of seconds without traffic jams. It used to take 16 hours to drive from Changsha to Chongqing, and then it only took 8 hours. Now, it takes less than two hours for Zhang Yongsheng to return to Yongshun's hometown.

Aizhai Bridge, built on the precipice, has a main span of1176m, and its deck is 355m away from the valley bottom. When the bridge was completed, it created four firsts in the world: the world's largest canyon bridge project, the world's first new structure of "tower-beam separation suspension bridge", the world's first new technology of erecting stiffening beams by "rail-cable sliding method" and the world's first carbon fiber rock anchor system.

Nowadays, the world-famous Aizhai Bridge has been recommended by NBC as "Top Ten New Landmarks in the World", rated as "Top Ten Most Beautiful Bridges in China" by China Highway Society, and written into the middle school textbook of Hunan Province (Geography of Grade Two), becoming a new business card of Hunan.

The bridge of happiness, from connecting rivers and seas to connecting people's hearts.

Local residents regard Aizhai Bridge as an "overpass", close to the sky and far from the ground. Looking down from the bridge, the "Sister Peak" praised by local people and the short village where Miao and Tujia people live together clearly come into view.

According to reports, the daily average traffic volume of Aizhai Bridge exceeds 1.4 million vehicles/time, which greatly improves the local traffic conditions, and the logistics, people flow, capital flow and information flow surge. Paixiong Village, Aizhai Town, near Aizhai Bridge, relies on Aizhai Bridge Scenic Area to develop a "belt" tourism industry, explore the integration mode of agriculture and tourism, and drive more than 400 local people to find jobs nearby.

Dehang Miao village in the mountains.

"In the past, I could only raise pigs, chickens and ducks, and my annual income could only maintain my living expenses; Now I mainly do tourism and do some small business with an annual income of 60,000 to 70,000. " Long Xiucheng, a villager in Paixiong Village, Aizhai Town, is a local check-in household. After the bridge was opened to traffic, he saw the business opportunities, upgraded his house and opened a farmhouse on 20 14. Business has been good because it is close to the bridge. After several years, he not only got rid of the hat of poverty, but also became rich day by day.

Near the bridge, there are not a few people like Long Xiucheng who rely on farmhouse music to get rid of poverty and get rich. On 20 19, Paixiong village was completely lifted out of poverty and became wider and wider on the road of rural revitalization.

The completion and opening of Aizhai Bridge has made the natural moat a thoroughfare, and achieved a "leap from half an hour to 1 minute". The transportation department and the local government are exploring and popularizing the model of "transportation+tourism+poverty alleviation", and taking Aizhai Bridge as the core to create a tourist scenic spot with "a century-old bridge spectacle, a thousand-year Miao village customs and a thousand-year canyon scenery". Since 20 15, the total number of visitors to Aizhai Bridge has reached more than 3 million.

Aizhai Bridge, a bridge to make a model of a scenic spot. Aizhai Bridge Scenic Area has now become a national 4A-level scenic spot, with an annual ticket income of more than 40 million yuan.

Spread out, a bridge has a history; Stand up, a bridge, a monument.

Aizhai Bridge not only bears the history of Xiangxi, but also is a great wonder in the depths of this mountain. On the land of Xiaoxiang in the new era, the bridge of happiness connecting rivers and seas and falling from the sky will surely become wider and wider.