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The tension is like the slender cables that suspend the 2.25 km long bridge across the lively Baling River valley. Soon, across this delicately balanced structure of steely elegance will speed the citizens of new China, in shiny new cars with nervously over-filled schedules. The Baling River Bridge is the last and crucial piece linking thousands of kilometers of highway, stretching from Guangzhou, the manufacturing hub of China to Kunming the terminus of the Burma oil pipeline project. Along these roads, deals will be made, minerals extracted, and tourists with carefully purchased leisure time shuttled into the bucolic landscape.

Under the new Bridge resides live Wei Xinyuan and his wife Lu Deqing, of the Buyi minority. Their lives have always been finely tuned to the seasons of planting and harvest. Nearly all their food is grown for their own consumption and to feed their one pig. What they make in a year from selling surplus corn and some produce is, in a good year, equal to one-third the average monthly income for an urban Chinese. Wei and his wife are two of China’s 700 million rural peoples.

In this image: farmer Wei Xinyuan ploughs his field under the Baling River Bridge, which soars 400 meters above the river valley. The bridge, in this image its platform span just about to be linked, is a feat of modern engineering. The Baling River Bridge is one of hundreds of infrastructure projects on which China plans to spend about 310 billion euros on over the next several years.
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Ariana Lindquist
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CHINA : LIFE UNDER THE BRIDGE
The tension is like the slender cables that suspend the 2.25 km long bridge across the lively Baling River valley. Soon, across this delicately balanced structure of steely elegance will speed the citizens of new China, in shiny new cars with nervously over-filled schedules. The Baling River Bridge is the last and crucial piece linking thousands of kilometers of highway, stretching from Guangzhou, the manufacturing hub of China to Kunming the terminus of the Burma oil pipeline project. Along these roads, deals will be made, minerals extracted, and tourists with carefully purchased leisure time shuttled into the bucolic landscape. <br /> <br /> Under the new Bridge resides live Wei Xinyuan and his wife Lu Deqing, of the Buyi minority. Their lives have always been finely tuned to the seasons of planting and harvest. Nearly all their food is grown for their own consumption and to feed their one pig. What they make in a year from selling surplus corn and some produce is, in a good year, equal to one-third the average monthly income for an urban Chinese. Wei and his wife are two of China’s 700 million rural peoples. <br /> <br /> In this image: farmer Wei Xinyuan ploughs his field under the Baling River Bridge, which soars 400 meters above the river valley. The bridge, in this image its platform span just about to be linked, is a feat of modern engineering. The Baling River Bridge is one of hundreds of infrastructure projects on which China plans to spend about 310 billion euros on over the next several years.