The Wheel on the Bridge

Most Ferris wheels stand in a park or on a pier. This one stands at the centre of Yongle Bridge, formerly Chihai Bridge, over the Hai River, and the sources state the consequence plainly: it is the only Ferris wheel in the world built on a bridge. The design is described as a combination of bridge and wheel, which saves urban space and produces a shape that is recognisable from either bank. The wheel stands about 120 metres high with a diameter of 110 metres, roughly the height of a thirty-five storey building, so the structure is a piece of transport infrastructure with a landmark on top of it rather than beside it.

The wheel's operation is described in numbers. Its rim carries 48 enclosed transparent cabins, each about twelve square metres and taking eight passengers, so a full load is 384 people; the drive is electric, one rotation takes about 28 minutes, and on a clear day the view reaches forty kilometres. It began operating on 16 April 2009 with a first-day ticket of 50 yuan, and it was rated a national 4A scenic area in November 2010. The cabins are the reason the wheel is a building as well as a machine: forty-eight sealed rooms travelling in a circle need power, ventilation and safety systems, and the ride is short enough that the queue is the main design problem.

Where the wheel stands is part of its interest. Hebei District lists the Tianjin Eye first among the sights inside it, ahead of the Italian Style Town, the Dabei Monastery and Beining Park, and the district's boundary describes it as lying in the north-east of central Tianjin on the north bank of the Hai. From the top, the river that the sources call the mother of the city runs away in both directions: toward Sanchahekou and the old walled town upstream, and toward the Dagu mouth and the sea downstream. A ride of 28 minutes is enough to see the geography that made Tianjin a port, which is more than most fairground attractions can claim.