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China Tourism: Crossing The New Glass Bridges - Travel - Nairaland

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China Tourism: Crossing The New Glass Bridges by babyoy(f): 6:27pm On Jan 24, 2016
For some in China the sky does not need to be the limit, especially when you can build a glass-bottomed suspension bridge across it.
Tourism sites in the central Henan and Hunan provinces have been constructing vertigo-inducing skywalks in a bid to attract visitors.
And it seems to have worked, attracting thrill-seeking tourists and locals, all wanting a chance to experience a bird's eye view of the Chinese countryside.
One of them is student Li Shu Zhen, 19, from Hangzhou city.
She shared with the BBC her experience of climbing the Brave Man's Bridge in Pingjiang county, Hunan province.
"You look down and feel a sense of fear, but you quickly recover from that and enjoy the scenery," she said.
"It was beautiful, almost as if one was walking on air."
Image copyrightReuters
Image caption
Yoga has been one of the stranger activities performed on the Brave Man's Bridge
Image copyrightGetty Images
Image caption
An eating challenge was held on this bridge in Yueyang country - although you might lose your appetite if you look down
The fully transparent bridge, which measures 300m long (984ft) and 180m high, first opened to the public in September.
It is one of the more popular bridges, with events - like mass yoga displays - often being staged on it.
Local officials say that glass panels were designed to withstand high winds and earthquakes, as well as the "weight of 800 visitors".
Glass bridge fever has also spread to neighbouring Taiwan, where a 179m-high bridge opened in Nantou county.
Image copyrightAP
Image caption
Construction has already begun on a second glass bridge above Zhangjiajie valley in Hunan province
'Even if the glass breaks'
Construction on the latest bridge, touted as the world's longest glass-bottomed walkway, is also nearing completion.
Standing at 300m high and stretching 375m, the bridge will hang above the Zhangjiajie grand canyon, also in Hunan province.
Gearing up for the bridge's 2016 opening, officials have even enlisted the public's help in naming it.
One of its engineers, Yang Guohong, from state-owned China Railway Major Bridge Reconnaissance and Design Institute, said contractors had taken extra safety precautions.
"No matter how the tourists jump on the bridge, it will still be fine," he told the People's Daily newspaper.
"The steel structures beneath it are incredibly dense, so even if the glass breaks, visitors won't fall through."
Image copyrightGetty Images
Image caption
Would you dare to walk across?
But architects who spoke to the BBC said that such glass bridges were often "primarily a novelty, built as visitor attractions rather than commuter bridges".
Architect Keith Brownlie, who was involved in a glass bridge for The London Science Museum, said that the appeal was "thrill".
"It is the relationship between emotionally driven fear and the logical understanding of safety," he said. "These structures tread the boundary between those two contrasting senses and people like to challenge their rational mind in relation to their irrational fear."
Others felt that the bridges symbolised extravagance, especially in China.
"In architecture, glass has always been associated with luxury and often as a display of wealth," said bridge designer Ezra Groskin.
"Glass floor panels, used in the creation of invisible architecture, are not a new phenomenon. However its use is often restricted due to cost and practicality."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/asia
Re: China Tourism: Crossing The New Glass Bridges by babyoy(f): 6:40pm On Jan 24, 2016
See pix of the bridge

Re: China Tourism: Crossing The New Glass Bridges by WelconnectTrav1(m): 4:33pm On Jan 25, 2016
Iyen naa da. More monney to yhe china economy.

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