China's bridges: dazzling, and buried in debt

Chishi, China

SOARING over a lush valley in southern China, the Chishi Bridge is a 1.4 mile marvel of concrete and steel. Four piers, like graceful tuning forks as tall as skyscrapers, secure cables suspending a four-lane expressway 610 feet above fields of corn and rice.

Squinting up from a dirt road below, Gu Tianyong, a 66-year-old farmer, pondered the colossus, which is a shortcut linking southwestern China with the east coast.