China opens thrilling glass-bottomed bridge in Shiniuzhai park

The recently completed span is a glass walkway suspended a stomach-flipping 180 meters (590 feet) above a sheer drop in China's central Hunan Province.

Haohan Qiao, as it's known in Chinese, is the latest in a series of glass-floored attractions to open in China and the rest of the world.

It gained widespread popularity after opening in 2016 and has been featured in numerous viral videos showing tourists having thrilling and terrifying experiences looking through the glass floor.

The cracking bridge in China

Despite its terror-inducing appearance, its creators say the bridge in the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park is perfectly safe. The cracking effect is actually a special feature designed to frighten visitors. Sensors that detect passing pedestrians, triggering the visual and sound effects.

Each of the glass panes is 24 millimeters thick and 25 times stronger than normal glass.

"The bridge we build will stand firm even if tourists are jumping on it," a worker who constructed the bridge told the state-owned China News Service.

"The steel frame used to support and encase the glass bridge is also very strong and densely built, so even if a glass is broken, travelers won't fall through."
Haohan Qiao was originally a wooden bridge before the park experimented by replacing a small section with glass in 2014.

It decided to increase the thrill by revamping the whole overpass earlier this year, making it China's first all-glass suspension bridge.