Tourists swarm glass bridge

China has opened the world’s highest and longest glass bridge. The 430-metre long, 6m wide glass-bottomed walkway hangs 300m above a canyon in the Tianmenshan National Forest Park in Hunan province, central China.

By June 2017, visitors will be able to hang from the overpass on three massive swings, or bungy jump off the side, Zhangjiajie Canyon Tourism Management Company vice general manager Joe Chen said.

Composed of 99 panes of three-layer transparent glass, the bridge has set 10 world records for design and construction, the management committee told the China Daily.

In July, the makers of the bridge invited a journalist to take a sledgehammer to a pane of glass to prove its strength.

The BBC’s Dan Simmons carried out the safety test, smashing a section of glass several times. And although the top layer cracked, the pane remained stable.

In an attempt to reassure the public of the bridge’s safety, officials also sent in sledgehammers and drove a car full of passengers across the bridge earlier this year.

A maximum 8000 visitors are allowed to cross every day. Reservations must be made a day in advance.

The canyon scenic area received more than 1.2 million visitors in 2015.