Celebrate the opening of the Yangtze River bridge

Artist: Chen Shaofang, Pan Xingjian, Hong Yaohua

Year: 1958

Publisher: Yangtze Literature and Art Press

Size (mm): 530x770

Condition: excellent, pinholes, small tears to margins

Completed in 1957, the Wuhan Yangtze Bridge was often referred to as the 'First Bridge of the Yangtze', and preceded the Chongqing Baishatuo Yangtze Bridge and Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. Although several surveys were made at the bridge's site during the first half of the twentieth century, World War II and the Chinese Civil War prevented construction from commencing until the 1950s. Chinese engineers were at the time still largely reliant on Soviet expertise, and a group of 28 Soviet engineers visited Wuhan in 1954 to aid with design and construction.