A new railway bridge was completed in the assembly of its structure striding Shenzhen River Sunday morning to link Shenzhen city in southern Guangdong Province with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The new Luohu bridge, 40 meters long and 224 tons in weight, is expected to be put into operation on June 13.

Yin Daqiao, official in charge of the construction of the project, said that all the assembly work was done by Sunday morning. In the next stage, they will lay rails along the bridge and then connect electricity, signal and telecommunication lines, which would need another half month.

A new pedestrian bridge will then be built, for people to more easily travel between Hong Kong and Shenzhen through Luohu Port.

While the new bridge takes shape in the area, the 100-year-old Luohu bridge has been moved to the Hong Kong side for exhibition as a cultural relic.

The century-old bridge has played a key role in connecting Shenzhen and Hong Kong since it was built.

In the early 1980s, the bridge observed Shenzhen residents returning from Hong Kong with various sized boxes of cheap electrical appliances, while 20 years later more Hong Kong residents are seen traveling via the bridge to shop and spend weekends in Shenzhen.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2004)