Once it opens, the Donghai Bridge will be more than just a connection between the city and the Yangshan Deep-water Port. It is expected to boost tourism on several islands and will play a large role in the city's development of environmentally friendly power.

Huang Rong, who is in charge of the project, said the central government plans to develop islands in the East China Sea into tourist attractions.

"There are many geological tourist attractions on Yangshan Island, and hopefully the city's tourism authority will open special travel routes to it," Huang said.

Speed boats will also travel between Yangshan and the Zhoushan Islands, which are home to many temples and other Buddhist attractions.

The bridge, which is expected to open early next month, is a key part of the first phase of the deep water port, which also includes five container-ship berths along the coast of Yangshan Island - sitting on the boundary between Shanghai and Zhejiang Province.

In addition to tourism, the city government is planning to build a number of wind-driven generators along the bridge from 2006 to 2010. City officials say the project is expected to cost around 2 billion yuan (US$247 million).

The project aims to push ahead the city's development of "green power," mostly wind-driven. A preliminary plan calls for the project to be open to both domestic and foreign companies, and says all contracts will be granted through opening bidding.

"This is part of the city's ambition to develop green power during the 11th Five-Year-Plan (2006-2010)," Chen Zhenqian, deputy director of the energy conservation and environmental protection division of the Shanghai Economic Commission, said in a recent interview.

The city wants green power to make up 1 percent of all energy used in Shanghai by 2012, Chen said. Currently, environmentally friendly power only accounts for 0.07 percent of energy used in the city.

Building generators at sea is difficult work, however, meaning it will also be expensive. Chen said the cost of building the windmills will be about 20,000 yuan per kilowatt of generating capacity - twice the cost of building generators on land.

Each windmill will be capable of generating 3,000 kilowatts, and the city wants to build enough generators to produce 100,000 kilowatts, according to Chen.

He said the city's current wind-driven power generators, which are located in rural Nanhui District, Fengxian District and Chongming County, are imported from foreign countries.

The bridge itself will have six traffic lanes, which can run in either direction based on traffic flow. The maximum speed on the bridge will be 80 kilometers per hour.

The bridge was designed in the shape of an "S" because driving along a straight bridge for a long time can be dangerous, engineers said. It should take about 30 minutes to drive from Nanhui District to the future Yangshan Deep-water Port via the 32.5-kilometer-long bridge.

(Shanghai Daily November 28, 2005)