One of China’s newest attractions, a 1600-foot swaying glass-bottom bridge in Hebei Province is drawing so many visitors that it’s not only a bad spot for acrophobics (fear of heights) but also for claustrophobics who hate being hemmed into small spaces.
As many as 20,000 tourists a day are finding their way out onto the bridge, whose sway is intentional, to look down and around in spectacular canyon country. Although the bridge is rated to hold 1,000 at a time, management is limiting it to 600 at a time, but still enough to make it very crowded. The distance to the bottom is about 755 feet, or greater than the height of a 66-story building.
The bridge, which weighs 70 tonnes and has over 1,000 glass floor panels, is only one of a growing number of observation bridges in China and elsewhere. The Hebei bridge is currently the world’s longest. The previous longest, 200 feet shorter is also in China, but is currently closed for renovation after finding safety concerns with large crowds.
