Skip On the Edge of a Skyscraper

Perched 76 stories above the ground, seven daring people are strapped onto the metal railings on top of Liuzhou’s Yunding Building, which just opened its most frightening tourist attraction yet, a 4.9-foot-wide glass path that allows people to walk along the edge of a skyscraper.

Glass walkways are not new in China. This is the fourth to open in the country, and the first in the autonomous region of Guangxi. You might have heard about the other glass walkway in the Yuntai Mountains when one of the glass panes cracked to the shock of tourists who were suspended 1,080 meters above the ground, Thankfully, that walkway is made of multiple layers of glass, one of which had shattered but did not compromise the safety of the structure, though the management bureau has closed the attraction.

A similar incident happened at London’s Tower Bridge, when the top pane of the multilayer bridge was shattered by a falling bottle, though it was quickly replaced and the attraction is still open. These cracks have not fazed Chinese travelers, a growing tourist market which has responded positively to the growing popularity of glass walkway attractions, like the one in Zhangjiajie, the world’s longest measuring at 420 meters long, 300 meters above the Henan canyon.

The Yunding Building is the latest addition to this trend. Unlike Yuntaishan, Zhangjiajie and Tower Bridge, this one has one side completely open to the air, allowing people to hang over the edge by their safety straps. Two safety personnel lead five tourists for every walk, so participants can relax and enjoy the view 994 feet off the ground.