The incredible £5.5bn bridge that is 16 miles long and connects 2 huge cities

China is today covered in huge internationally significant pieces of infrastructure, a far cry from the relatively less developed country it was several decades ago. Across the huge Asian state are large bridges, one of which reaches out into a bay between Jiaozhou and Qingdao which was the first European colony located fully on the Chinese mainland. The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge had a cameo in the first episode of the BBC TV series Race Across the World.

In 1897, the area had only about 700-800 inhabitants, not counting the Chinese soldiers stationed there, research by George Steinmetz suggests. Previously, in the 1860s, Germany had begun trying to obtain a coastal entry point from which they could expand inland into China. Via much geopolitical manoeuvring, a treaty, provided for the construction of two railways through Shandong Province by one or more mixed German-Chinese companies, as well as coal mining, eventually ensured the region was Europe’s first outpost.

To this day, Business Traveller calls Qingdao China’s "European City" because of its blend of Eastern and German architectural styling.

This can be seen particularly in the settlement’s older areas, where Baroque, Byzantine, Eclectic, Gothic, Art Nouveau and Romanesque structures are located.

These are more common sights in European cities.

The 16-mile long Jiaozhou Bay Bridge completed in 2011 reportedly cost a whopping $8.8billion to construct - or £5.5billion. It connects the port city of Qingdao to the Huangdao district.

The construction of the cable-stayed structure took four years, used 450,000 tonnes of steel and 2.3million cubic metres of concrete.

Builders were divided into two teams, and they started working from the opposite sides of the bay.

The two sections were connected on December 22, 2010.

When it was completed, it took the title of the longest sea crossing bridge in the world from the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the United States, which spans 23.6 miles.

However, it has since been trumped by the 34-mile long Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.