Glass panel on canyon walkway shatters
Print Edition
A GLASS walkway that hugs a cliff above a scenic canyon in central China has been closed after cracks developed while dozens of tourists were walking on it.
Only one of the three layers of glass that make up the walkway was damaged so there was no safety threat, the management bureau of the Yuntaishan scenic area in Henan Province said on its microblog yesterday.
The walkway was supporting dozens of tourists when the cracks appeared with a loud bang on Monday. A single pane of the 68-meter section shattered into coin-sized segments, according to footage shown by state broadcaster CCTV.
Postings to China’s Weibo messaging service described the fears of tourists who heard the panel crack.
The structure hugs a cliff side roughly 120m above a canyon in the remote mountain area renowned for its scenery. It opened on September 20, and the problem occurred at the height of China’s National Day holiday.
The microblog post said the cracks formed due to external force, but wasn’t specific. It added that the walkway can support weights of more than 800 kilograms per square meter.
A glass walkway above London’s Tower Bridge had a similar problem in November when a falling bottle shattered the top layer of one pane.
Such walkways have grown popular in China as scenic areas compete to attract increasingly affluent tourists.
The world’s highest and longest glass skywalk is in Hunan’s Zhangjiajie, known as the model for the planet Pandora in the film “Avatar.” The structure stretches 430m at a height of 300m above the canyon floor.
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