CHINA: Five suspended levels and cars going in all directions: a new highway interchange is driving motorists to tears, as they find themselves lost in a concrete maze resembling a plate of spaghetti.
After eight years of construction, the Huangjuewan interchange was completed last week on the outskirts of Chongqing, a sprawling metropolis in southwest China.
The structure balances five layers of traffic with the highest 37 meters above ground. No less than 15 ramps have been built to allow vehicles to move from one level to another, in eight directions, according to the municipality’s website.
An official on Chongqing’s urban and rural construction committee told Xinhua news agency that the complex design was necessary to link the city’s core, airport, and expressway, with each ramp leading to a different zone.
This navigational nightmare has set the Internet ablaze.
“If you miss a ramp, you will reach Chongqing one day later,” warned one user on the social network Weibo.
“My GPS told me: go where you want and leave me alone!,” a commenter joked, while another christened the city “Chongqing, the city that you’ll never leave.”
One driver was more reassuring: “Huangjuewan, a legendary bridge in eight directions and five stories: I took it without a GPS and without getting lost!“
Drivers bewildered by twisting Chinese interchange
Drivers bewildered by twisting Chinese interchange
WHO says one person dead from Nipah virus in Bangladesh
- Nipah is an infection that spreads mainly through products contaminated by infected bats, such as fruit
DHAKA: The World Health Organization said on Friday that a woman had died in northern Bangladesh in January after contracting the deadly Nipah virus infection.
The case in Bangladesh, where Nipah cases are reported almost every year, follows two Nipah virus cases identified in neighboring India, which has already prompted stepped-up airport screenings across Asia.
The patient in Bangladesh, aged between 40-50 years, developed symptoms consistent with Nipah virus on January 21, including fever and headache followed by hypersalivation, disorientation and convulsion, the WHO added.
She died a week later and was confirmed to be infected with the virus a day later.
The person had no travel history but had a history of consuming raw date palm sap. All 35 people who had contact with the patient are being monitored and have tested negative for the virus, and no further cases have been detected to date, the WHO said.
Nipah is an infection that spreads mainly through products contaminated by infected bats, such as fruit. It can be fatal in up to 75 percent of cases, but it does not spread easily between people.
Countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Pakistan implemented temperature screenings at airports after India said cases of the virus had been found in West Bengal.
The WHO said on Friday that the risk of international disease spread is considered low and that it does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions based on current information.
In 2025, four laboratory-confirmed fatal cases were reported in Bangladesh.
There are currently no licensed medicines or vaccines specific for the infection.
