Dizzying Heights: Vertical Tourism in China

Alan Taylor
November 15, 2018
30 Photos
In Focus

In recent years, Chinese developers have opened a series of new tourist attractions in some very lofty places. Glass-bottomed bridges span deep canyons, narrow walkways cling to sheer cliffs, observation decks and “skywalks” top skyscrapers, and massive platforms cantilever out into thin air—all designed to entice the slightly adventurous traveler. Collected below, images of a few of these mountainside and urban destinations. A warning to any readers with a fear of heights: Some of these photos are a bit dizzying.

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People climb past a 100-meter-high convenience store installed on a cliff in Pingjiang in China's central Hunan province on April 25, 2018. The store was opened to offer food and water to rock climbers. #

AFP / Getty

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A view of the Zhujiang New Town financial district in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, seen from the observation deck of Canton Tower, 1,473 feet (449 meters) above street level. #

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A glass-bottomed cliffside skywalk passes through an arch at Shimenxian Lake in Rongan in southern China's Guangxi province, photographed on August 1, 2017. #

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A visitor balances on an open-air glass walkway with others outside the 88th floor of Jinmao Tower in the Lujiazui area of Shanghai on July 25, 2016. #

AFP / Getty

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Tourists walk along a glass-bottomed walkway suspended over a gap in Rong'an County in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on April 19, 2018. #

VCG via Getty

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A woman swings as she takes wedding photos above a cliff in Shiniuzhai National Geological Park in Pingjiang, Hunan province, on October 28, 2018. #

Yang Huafeng / VCG via Getty

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A man stands on a glass-floored area on the 37th floor of the China Central Television (CCTV) Tower in Beijing on June 11, 2015. #

Jason Lee / Reuters

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Tourists walk on a glass-bottomed skywalk on Panlong Cliff on Tianmen Mountain on August 1, 2016, in Zhangjiajie, China. #

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A woman is coaxed to walk farther along the glass-bottomed suspension bridge at Hongyagu Scenic Area in Pingshan, Hebei province, on December 26, 2017. The 488-meter-long bridge is four meters wide and hangs nearly 218 meters above the valley floor. #

Zhang Haiqiang / VCG via Getty

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A glass sightseeing platform erected in the Shilinxia scenic area in Beijing's Pinggu district, photographed on April 30, 2016 #

AFP / Getty

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A newlywed couple dangling from a cliff face poses for wedding photos in the Chaya Mountain scenic area on November 11, 2017, in Zhumadian, Henan province. #

VCG via Getty

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People enjoy free delicacies on a cliff walkway at an altitude of 2,000 meters at Laojun Mountain in Luoyang, Henan province, on July 8, 2018. #

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People have lunch on a footpath built on a cliff in Longquan Mountains in Longquan, in east China's Zhejiang province, on September 19, 2018. #

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A view of a newly completed horseshoe-shaped glass bridge on Fuxi Mountain in Xinmi in central China's Henan province, on June 12, 2018. The glass platform extends 30 meters out from the cliff, nine meters more than the world's famous Grand Canyon Skywalk. #

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This photo taken on April 30, 2016, shows people posing on a glass sightseeing platform in the Shilinxia scenic area in Beijing's Pinggu district. #

AFP / Getty

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Tourists navigate the precarious Plank Walk in the Sky on Mount Hua in Shaanxi province on October 6, 2017. #

Maciej Bledowski / Shutterstock

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Bailong Elevator is a glass elevator built onto the side of a huge cliff in the Wulingyuan area of Zhangjiajie, China, that stands 1,080 feet (330 meters) high, photographed here on March 6, 2016. #

OLOS / Shutterstock

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Tourists visit the glass-bottom bridge crossing Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon on August 20, 2016, in Hunan province. The bridge hangs over a 300-meter-deep valley between two cliffs in the canyon area. #

VCG via Getty

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The Shanghai skyline, including part of the Oriental Pearl Tower viewed through the opening at the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center, photographed on August 4, 2018. #

Askarim / Shutterstock

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People experience the glass skywalk outside the sightseeing hall on the 88th floor of Jin Mao Tower on July 25, 2016, in Shanghai, China. #

VCG via Getty

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An exterior view of the Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland during its opening to the public on November 15, 2018, in Shanghai, China. The hotel is located in the deep pit of a former quarry. It has two stories above ground and 16 stories underground, with 336 guest rooms. #

Zhang Hengwei / VCG via Getty

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An aerial view of tourists walking on a glass-floored pedestrian suspension bridge built in the Yimeng Mountains, on October 4, 2018, in Linyi, Shandong province #

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A twisting switchback road climbs Tianmen Mountain in Hunan province. #

Tatiana Popova / Shutterstock

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Girls perform a water-sleeve dance on a plank road built along the vertical cliff of Jinfo Mountain in Nanchuan district on July 29, 2018, in Chongqing. #

VCG via Getty

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Chinese tourists walk across a glass-bottomed suspension bridge amid dense fog in the Shiniuzhai Mountains in Pingjiang County, Hunan province, on October 7, 2015. #

Johannes Eisele / AFP / Getty

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A gallery built into a cliff, photographed on December 25, 2017, in Anlong, Guizhou, China #

TPG / Getty

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Looking down through the glass floor from the Pearl Tower Observation Deck in Shanghai #

Iuliia Sheliepova / Shutterstock

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Construction workers build a new walkway in Mangshan National Forest Park, in Yizhang County, Hunan province, on November 1, 2018. They risk their lives and spend years working in the steep mountains, unknown to the public, to open new "sightseeing passages" for tourists. #

Costfoto / Barcroft Media via Getty

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Tourists visit the 400-meter-long glass-bottomed sky walkway at the Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Park on September 3, 2018, in Sanya, Hainan province. #

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Tourists take tentative steps on a suspension bridge with a glass floor, after its debut in south China's Hunan province on September 24, 2015, in Pingjiang, China. #

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