Runyang Bridge Bridge Exhibition Hall and Mao Yisheng Memorial Hall

Runyang Bridge Bridge Exhibition Hall and Mao Yisheng Memorial Hall

The Runyang Bridge Bridge Exhibition Hall and Mao Yisheng Memorial Hall serve as a science education base.

The Mao Yisheng Memorial Hall is situated in the Runyang Bridge Park. Covering an area of over 1,000 square meters, the hall exhibits more than 800 personal items of Comrade Mao Yisheng and nearly 200 photos and documents related to his life and deeds. It also presents the construction process of the Runyang Bridge, emphasizing the innovations involved, showcasing the care and attention from leaders at various levels, and promoting bridge-related knowledge. The establishment of the memorial hall helps promote Mao Yisheng’s spirit of innovation and the spirit of the Runyang Bridge, providing a solid platform for accelerating the development of an innovative transportation industry and enhancing the industry’s technological self-innovation capabilities. It serves as a landmark structure in the Runyang Bridge Park, integrating exhibition, science education, bridge technology, bridge culture, bridge history, modern bridge engineering, and bridge viewing.

In practical use, the managing authorities have focused on maximizing their role in educating, demonstrating, and leading efforts to improve scientific literacy among the public. They strive to serve society by helping the public gain more scientific knowledge and methods, develop scientific thinking, uphold the scientific spirit, and enhance overall scientific literacy. Today, the Mao Yisheng Memorial Hall has become a municipal-level science education base for the general public in Zhenjiang City.

At the exhibition hall, we were particularly fascinated by the steel cables of the Runyang Bridge's cable-stayed structure. Seeing the cross-section of the cables left us in awe of the immense power of high technology. During our visit to the Mao Yisheng Memorial Hall, we gained even greater admiration for the life and legacy of this master bridge engineer. His poem at the time of demolishing the Qiantang River Bridge — “The element of fire was truly missing; now that fire has come, I’ll not restore the bridge unless I am a true man” — left a deep impression on us.

In the memorial hall, we learned about several national firsts achieved during the construction of the Runyang Bridge, such as China’s first long-span suspension bridge, the nation’s tallest suspension bridge main tower, the country’s first suspension bridge main cable, the largest steel box girder for a major bridge, the largest area of bridge deck paving, and the largest bridge anchor block.