The video shows an incident on a different bridge in the Chinese city of Humen

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on May 14, 2020 at 07:30
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Indonesia
A video which shows a bridge appearing to shake has been shared hundreds of times in multiple posts on Facebook alongside a claim that it is the “Macau-Hongkong” bridge. The claim is false; the video shows an incident on a different bridge in the Chinese city of Humen in Guangdong province.

The video has been shared more than 1,000 times after it was posted on Facebook on May 7, 2020.

The 14-second video shows the surface of a bridge appearing to ripple like waves.

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Screenshot of the misleading post

The post’s Javanese-language caption translates to English as: “Sister, is this true? it is said that this is the Macau-Hongkong bridge. It is on TV this morning...the bridge looks like it is breathing.”

The video was also shared on Facebook alongside a similar claim in Javanese here and here; and here in Indonesian.

The claim is false; the video shows a bridge in the Chinese city of Humen in Guangdong province.

A Google reverse image search for a screenshot of the video found a longer version of the clip was embedded in this report published by Hong Kong newspaper The Standard on May 5, 2020. 

Below is a screenshot of the The Standard’s report:

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Screenshot of The Standard’s report

The report’s headline reads: “Rippling Bridge”.

The report reads in part: “People were getting the shakes along a stretch of the Pearl River yesterday. 

“That came as Guangzhou authorities suspended traffic on the 3,618-meter Humen Pearl River Bridge, which connects the Nansha district and Humen town in Dongguan city. For it shook so much it set off ripples along the river. Some bridge-crossers said it felt like they were on a small boat. Such reports alarmed the city's transport department to the extent that the bridge was closed at 3.32pm.”

The 43-second video was posted on YouTube on May 5, 2020. The video's simplified Chinese-language title translates to English as: “Humen bridge”. 

Below is a screenshot comparison between the clip in the misleading post (L) and the YouTube video (R):

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Comparison between the clip in the misleading post (L) and the YouTube video (R)

Nansha district is located in Guangzhou, a city in Guangdong province, China. 

The bridge can be seen in this image tagged to Google Maps.

The same incident was also covered by China’s state-run broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN) here and Hong Kong-based news outlet the South China Morning Post here.

This is the location of the Humen Pearl River Bridge on Google Maps.

Another bridge, the 55-km-long Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, connects Hong Kong and Macau. 

This is the location of the bridge at one end in Hong Kong on Google Maps.

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