World's largest glass bridge opens in China

The world’s highest and longest glass bridge has opened to visitors in central China. The 430-metre long, six-metre wide glass-bottomed walkway hangs 300 metres above a canyon in the Tianmenshan National Forest Park in Henan province. It connects two mountain cliffs in what are known as the Avatar mountains, named after the blockbuster film it had featured in.

Completed in December, the bridge – designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan – cost $3.4 million to build. Its management committee told the state-run China Daily that the bridge has broken 10 world records for design and construction.

A maximum of 8,000 visitors are allowed to cross everyday, and reservations must be made a day in advance.

Officials have staged high-profile events to try and reassure the public of the bridge’s safety, bashing at it with sledgehammers and driving a car filled with passengers across it.

A glass pane on a new transparent walkway shattered near Yuntai Mountain, Henan, in October last year. A visitor posted pictures of cracked glass on Chinese social media, after which authorities closed the tourist attraction down for repairs.

A spokesperson told People’s Daily that the cracks occurred after a tourist dropped a stainless-steel mug on the walkway. Only one of three layers of glass was broken, meaning the tourists were not in danger, the spokesperson said.