Dongting Lake is the second largest lake in China. It lies in the path of the Hangzhou-Ruili Highway. Whether this road can open to traffic or not depends on the successful completion of a giant suspension bridge across the lake.

The Second Dongting Lake Bridge has a span of 1,480 meters. It's formed of two anchorages each exceeding 630,000 tons in weight, two pylons rising over 200 meters, two 2,600-meter-long main cables and a deck formed of over 43,000 tons of steel truss girders.