The skywalk at Yuntai Mountain is the first U-shaped glass walkway to be constructed in Central China. The attraction, 1,080 meters (3,543 feet) above sea level, opened on September 20, 2015.
According to witnesses, the 68-centimeter (27 inches) wide pane of glass shattered as they were walking over it, causing a mini-stampede as people pushed and shoved each other to get to the end of the path and safety.
China’s social media site Weibo, was flooded with accounts of the terror tourists experienced. One Weibo user, Lee Dong Hai, wrote: “My foot shook a little. I looked down and I saw that there was a crack in the floor. A lot of people started to scream. I screamed out, ‘It cracked! It really cracked!’ and then I pushed the people in front of me so that we could run out of the way.”
A spokesman for the Yuntai Mountain tourism bureau confirmed to the People’s Daily the walkway really did crack. The spokesman said the cracks occurred after a tourist dropped a stainless steel mug on the walkway. The walkway has been closed indefinitely.
The incident has raised questions over inferior construction practices, but in a statement from park officials, they said the cause of the accident was due to “external forces,” meaning the dropped mug. “The passage’s surface is made of custom-made three-layer tempered glass panes. The cracks only affect one layer of the pane and will not pose a threat to safety,” said the statement.
The pathway spans 260 meters (853 feet), with a 68 meter (223 foot) glass-bottom section. It is not to be confused with the glass-bottomed bridge that opened on Thursday, Sept. 24, in Shiniuzhai National Geological Park in central China’s Hunan province.
