NANJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A 518-meter-long glass bridge has opened to the public in Huaxi Village in east China's Jiangsu Province, according to sources with the village.
The bridge hangs more than 100 meters above ground level at the Huaxi World Adventure Park. It is made of panes of 35-mm-thick glass. Each glass can hold a maximum weight of 4.7 tonnes. Around 2,600 people can cross the bridge at a time.
The bridge can produce "broken glass" special effect. When tourists stand on it, they hear the sound of glass shattering and see a spider-web pattern appear on the glass surface.
The construction of the bridge completed in March, with a total investment of more than 80 million yuan (around 12 million U.S. dollars).
It opened on Tomb-sweeping Day, which fell on April 5 this year. During the three-day holiday, more than 50,000 tourists experienced the terrifying bridge.
Beside the bridge, a 388-meter-long glass slide was also built.
Huaxi, about 130 km away from Shanghai, is reported as one of China's wealthiest villages.
Wu Xie'en, Party chief of Huaxi, said the village was developing more emerging industries including tourism, while shutting down or upgrading its traditional industries.
Glass bridges can be found in other parts of China, including Zhangjiajie, a famous tourist destination, where a 430-meter-long, 6-meter-wide bridge hangs between two steep cliffs 300 meters above the ground.
