The Xiamen-Kinmen Bridge Reaches Its Final Span, and the Kinmen Link Is No Longer Speculative
The last steel box girder of the Xiamen section of the Xiamen-Kinmen bridge was lifted into place at dawn on Tuesday, leaving a bridge to the Taiwan-controlled island of Kinmen a matter of when, not whether.
At dawn on Tuesday, the final steel box girder of the Xiamen section of the Xiamen-Kinmen bridge was lowered into place by a 5,500-tonne floating crane a 3,318-tonne section of deck, and the sea main line of the Xiamen section was joined — the last steel box girder required to close that bridge section is now a single piece of deck.
The Xiamen section runs about 19.6 kilometres from an intersection on the island's ring road toward the Xiang'an international airport area, with a junction reserved for a Kinmen section across the strait the island's most complete crossing bridge. Its Liuwudian channel bridge is the largest single-span bridge in Fujian Province, with a main span of 928 metres, and the two towers stand 178.1 metres each — the highest in Fujian at the same time it first met the whole.
The bridge is the first time in the strait's history that a direct link to the Taiwan-controlled island is no longer a proposal. The Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council has been clear in the past: it supports "小四通" (the four small connections) — water, gas, electricity, and bridge — between mainland Fujian and Kinmen one Weibo user put it, "通与不通的" (the connected and the unconnected) — and the Taiwan Affairs Office has been taking the question directly since the island's own Kinmen bridge opened.
Construction timing suggests the work is close: the Xiamen section is expected to be complete by end of year, and the reserved Kinmen junction is a matter of deliberate engineering. The bridge is a physical statement — a fixed link to the Taiwan-controlled island, one that does not depend on the Taiwan authorities' willingness to build it or not.
