Huajiang Canyon Bridge Cloud Crossing Service Area

Project Overview:

To deeply implement the provincial Party committee and provincial government’s strategic vision of “transforming the bridge into a world-class tourism landmark for Guizhou,” the Yundu Service Area on the Huajiang Canyon Bridge has broken away from conventional service-area design thinking. Building upon the provision of transportation and basic services, it has delved deeply into the bridge’s intrinsic value and local culture. Taking the Huajiang Canyon Bridge—the world’s first in both horizontal and vertical dimensions—as its iconic landmark, and using Triassic ancient marine relics as the spatial backdrop, the service area has adopted the theme “Encountering the Triassic Era at the Bridge, Exploring the Ancient Ocean at Yundu.” As a result, it has been developed into a pioneering, integrated bridge-and-tourism project that combines tourism sightseeing, leisure vacations, extreme sports, and science education and research. As a flagship implementation of Guizhou’s “Bridge-Tourism Integration 3.0” strategy, this service area, together with the Baling River Bridge and the Pingtang Grand Bridge (the “Sky Bridge”), forms Guizhou’s golden matrix of bridge-and-tourism resources. It represents a comprehensive upgrade in terms of concept, depth, and breadth, serving as a model for building a transportation powerhouse with international influence and providing a vivid demonstration for the nationwide shift in bridge engineering—from “single-functionality” to “comprehensive empowerment.”

The project covers a total land area of 478.82 mu and has a total construction area of 41,760.87 square meters. It officially opened to traffic and began operations on September 28, 2025. The Yundu Service Area is divided into two major core functional zones: The first zone is the service area complex, covering a land area of 241.82 mu and a construction area of 16,186.55 square meters. It integrates the Yundu Service Area comprehensive building, dormitory buildings, ancillary equipment rooms, connecting roads, service area parking lots, a cloud-top viewing platform, and leisure activity areas. At the same time, it features a visitor service center and a distinctive commercial district. The second zone is the bridge-tourism integration core area, covering a land area of 237.00 mu and a construction area of 25,574.32 square meters. This zone includes a resort hotel, a bridge tower sightseeing area, an educational research base, a backup parking lot, and management facilities, complemented by special features such as water-screen light shows and high-altitude sports facilities.

Project Highlights:

Break the impasse in functional positioning. The Yun Du Service Area has shifted its focus from being merely a transportation infrastructure to becoming a million-visitor destination imbued with Chinese identity and Guizhou characteristics—serving as a regional tourism gateway and cultural showcase. The site adopts a spatial planning concept of “service area in the front, tourism zone in the back,” seamlessly integrating service-area functions with those of a scenic-area gateway. A diverse array of spaces and business formats have been carefully designed, enabling the area to make a transformative leap from being an “engineering marvel” to a “tourism landmark.”
Planning and design take the lead. To accommodate the operation of various tourism formats, construction access roads are repurposed as operational routes in the later stage, seamlessly connecting service areas, bridge towers, anchorages, and local transportation networks. This integration enables tourists to quickly connect with local resources, breaking down industry barriers between transportation and tourism. The site design is tailored to local conditions, ingeniously creating multi-level terraces that not only establish a spatial structure conducive to tourism development but also align with the logical layout requirements of diverse tourism formats.
Innovative development model. By leveraging the concept of “one bridge, one service area,” we’re stimulating coordinated development across tourism, culture, agriculture, sports, and health-care industries along the route. Guided by the principle of “creating attraction above the bridge while fostering productivity below it,” we’re forging a new development paradigm characterized by “transportation-driven growth, tourism-powered empowerment, and industry synergy.” With the Yundu Service Area as the central hub, this initiative effectively links together renowned attractions such as Huangguoshu Waterfall, Longgong Cave, Wanfenglin Karst Landscape, and Zhenfeng Ancient Town, transforming previously relatively isolated sites into an integrated “90-minute tourism circle.” This has significantly enriched the tourism offerings in western Guizhou and enhanced the region’s overall competitiveness. The project is also actively collaborating with the sports industry, turning the bridge’s scenic advantages into strategic assets for hosting high-end sporting events, thereby driving a shift from sightseeing tours to immersive, experience-based travel.
The scene-setting has gone viral. The bridge’s paint design breaks with convention, drawing inspiration from the timeless Chinese masterpiece “Rivers and Mountains Through the Ages” and featuring a predominantly teal-green color palette. This elegant and serene color scheme perfectly softens the industrial feel of the steel structure, making the massive bridge appear as if it were a natural mountain landscape—harmoniously coexisting with the verdant hues of the karst terrain and embodying the Eastern aesthetic wisdom of “the unity of human artistry and natural grandeur.” The project also features a rare canyon water-screen light show in China. During the day, a colossal water screen spanning 300 meters cascades down from the bridge deck, creating dazzling rainbows under the sunlight. At night, the water screen transforms into a natural canvas for laser projections, combined with the bridge’s own artistic lighting to stage a magical light show above the canyon. This innovative spectacle successfully extends visitors’ stay into the evening hours, establishing a signature nighttime tourism experience.
The economic benefits are remarkable. During the 2025 National Day mini-holiday, passenger traffic continued to rise steadily, with a total of over 220,000 visitors received, peaking at 41,000 visitors on a single day, and generating comprehensive tourism revenue of 103 million yuan. According to data from several major travel platforms, the Yundu Service Area along the Huajiang Canyon Bridge ranked first on the list of most popular tourist destinations and significantly boosted search interest in the scenic areas along the route. The project has also directly spurred an explosive growth in industries such as homestay clusters, specialty dining, and agricultural product sales in Huajiang Town beneath the bridge and surrounding villages, making a positive contribution to rural revitalization and the consolidation of achievements made in poverty alleviation efforts.

Honored Achievements: