(Photo: People's Daily/Yuan Jirong)

Malé (People’s Daily) - The China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, the first cross-sea bridge in the Maldives, opened to traffic on Thursday evening. 

Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen and the representative of the Chinese government and head of China's International Development Cooperation Agency Wang Xiaotao and 2,000 other people attended the opening ceremony.

Photo taken on Aug. 30, 2018 shows the aerial view of the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, in Maldives. (Xinhua/Wang Mingliang)

Yameen hailed the bridge as an embodiment of the two countries’ long relations and called China a “willing partner” for the Maldives. The bridge has proven that nothing was impossible through genuine partnership, he said. 

China and the Maldives have long been true friends, treating each other as equals and pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation, said Wang. 

When Umar Zahir, former minister of construction of the Maldives, inspected the bridge, the 80-year-old said, “This is a bridge that has placed a dream for the local people of the Maldives for half a century. When it is impossible in other countries, it is the Chinese that finally made our dreams come true.”

(Photo: Xinhua/Wang Mingliang)

China and the Maldives agreed on the cross-sea bridge in 2014 when Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a visit to the island nation, which is a landmark co-building project of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. 

Sitting in the Indian Ocean, the bridge connects the Maldives capital and neighboring Hulhule island, where the country’s main international airport is located. 

The route is 2,000 meters long and the main bridge is 760 meters long, which is a six-span laminated hybrid V-shaped rigid frame structure.

Fireworks light up the sky to celebrate the bridge's opening on Aug. 30, 2018. (Photo: People's Daily/Yuan Jirong)