Guizhou's infrastructure development contributes to poverty-reduction
Bridge construction being a key component, the transport networks in Guizhou improved systematically. In a speech delivered in August 2022, Shen Yiqin, Party secretary of Guizhou, described the last ten years of Guizhou as "the golden decade" -- partly because of the unprecedented scale of infrastructure projects. Taking the high-speed railroad as an example, Guizhou had no high-speed railroad in 2012, while in 2021, the mileage of the high-speed railroad reached 1527 km (949 miles). A ride from the inland city Guiyang (the provincial capital of Guizhou) to the coastal metropolitan Guangzhou has been reduced from 20 hours to 4 hours.
- It has long been known to the Chinese from other regions as a mountainous, mysterious land.
- The Dong people, as one of the largest minority groups in Guizhou, built multifunctional bridges which can be served as the "common room" for the community.
- These bridges, locally called Fengyu (literally "Wind and Rain") Bridges, have witnessed generations of locals' avid to walk out of the mountains to explore the world.
- However, a host of giant infrastructure projects rolled out in the past decade have reshaped the province.