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Society: Engineering marvel takes shape in Sichuan

The first main cable for the Xingkang Bridge, spanning 1,100 meters across the Luding River in the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Sichuan province, was laid last week. The bridge is part of an expressway that links Ya'an city and Kangding county in the province. Around 34,034 steel cables will be used in the bridge's construction, with a total length reaching 60,000 kilometers if all the cables were laid end to end. This distance is equivalent to 1.5 times the circumference of the Earth. The 135-km-long expressway from Ya'an to Kangding is scheduled to be completed by August next year and will cut the travel time from Ya'an to Kangding from the current four hours to two.