History
The route was originally called the "1st Expressway Ring Road", as it would take the form of an expressway, and therefore become the city's first expressway ring road. However, given the fact that the 2nd Ring Road, 3rd Ring Road and 4th Ring Road were in existence, re-ordering it as a ring road with a number value of 1, especially as it was outside the 4th Ring Road, looked odd. Therefore, it was renamed the 5th Ring Road, after some debate.
Work began soon after and the first portion of the ring road opened in 2001, linking the Badaling Expressway with the Airport Expressway. Further stretches of the road were soon opened. By mid-2003, half of the ring road was open, from the western end connecting the West Chang'an Avenue to the interchange in the southeast with the Jingjintang Expressway.
The ring road was completed in its entirety on November 1, 2003, with the intersections with the Jingshi Expressway and the Jingkai Expressway. Also completed on that same day was the Xiaoyue Tunnel -- noticeable for being the only tunnel on any of the 5 Ring Roads of Beijing.
The 5th Ring Road is home to the Shifeng Bridge. This bridge was built and actually had to be rotated after it was built to link the two ends of the southwestern 5th Ring Road together. Underneath the bridge ran several important rail lines that could not be interrupted while the bridge was being built, which made it impossible for the Shifeng Bridge to be built like a normal bridge. It was instead constructed in parts extending the expressway as it went along. The completion of this colossal work accelerated the completion of the entire ring road.
At night, the Shifeng Bridge looks spectacular. It apparently is a trademark bridge of the expressway ring road.
Read more about this topic: 5th Ring Road (Beijing)
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