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A new bridge which is twice the height of London’s iconic Shard has opened in China.

The Beipanjiang Bridge, suspended 565 metres over the Nizhu River in south-west China, has been hailed as the “highest in the world”.

The 1,837-foot-tall Sidu River Bridge previously held the title for the world's highest bridge.

The £121 million crossing, which links the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, opened on Thursday.

Journey times between the two areas will be slashed from five hours to less than two hours thanks to the new four-lane construction.

Read more Shard captured during spectacular sunrise as London wakes to frost

It marks the completion of a motorway between Hangzhou in the south-east of the country to Ruili on the Burmese border.

All but two of the world’s ten highest bridges are now in China.

The country also boasts the second and third highest bridges - the Sidu River Bridge and the Puli Bridge.

Mexico’s Baluarte Bridge is now classed as world’s seventh highest bridge, standing at 390m and Papua New Guinea’s 393m high Hegigio Gorge Pipeline Bridge is now the sixth highest.

Millau Viaduct, a cable-stayed bridge that spans the Tarn River Valley in southern France, is classed as the world’s tallest bridge at 343m.