Shenxianju, Zhejiang, China
Incredible 100m ‘bending’ glass bridge opens in China
The Ruyi bridge, located in the Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, was first revealed in 2017, before opening in 2020. Initially, the designs were met with scepticism, with the wonky walkways standing 140m above ground seeming unrealistic. Former astronaut Chris Hadfield said he’d “want better handrails” while others called it “fake” and a product of computer imagery.
However, it has since become a huge tourist attraction with more than 200,000 brave visitors making the walk between the two mountains since it opened. The bridge design is inspired by a jade ruyi, a curved object used as a symbol of good fortune in China. It is made with three undulating bridges, with the deck partly made of glass.
Would you dare? China’s new bending bridge is ‘too crazy to exist’
The Ruyi Bridge in Shenxianju is now the biggest and craziest attraction of Zhejiang Province in China. The vertigo-inducing glass-bottom bridge sits 140 metres above the ground and is 100 metres long.
Many people on social media are in disbelief of the bridge’s whacky design. One social media commentator asked: “IS IT REAL?!?!” You best believe your eyes because the ‘bending bridge’ is not a product of computer imagery like many first guessed. It is a real architectural marvel that more than 200,000 brave visitors have already walked over.
It is made with three undulating bridges and the deck is partly made of glass. The bridge design is inspired by a jade ruyi, a curved object that is used as a symbol of good fortune in China. “The rigid and soft shape is perfectly integrated with the natural scenery, just like a jade ruyi in the sky, and like a fairy draped silk,” the bridge creators explain.
Ruyi Bridge, China: 'Bending bridge' goes viral
Well, yet another marvel of architecture is gaining worldwide attention, a "bending bridge" that has led to claims it is "too crazy to exist". Indeed, when images first begin to circulate of the bridge opened last year, many claimed they were fake, leading myth-busting site Snopes to investigate and confirm that it is, indeed, real. Ruyi Bridge is at the Shenxianju Scenic Area near Taizhou in Zhejiang province on the country's east coast.
The bridge's design was thought to be too far-fetched when it was first announced in 2017, but after opening last year it has now welcomed thousands of tourists. Inspired by jade ruyi, which symbolises power and good fortune in Chinese folklore, the 140m-high structure is three bridges with a deck partially made from glass. The park explained in a post on social platform Weibo that "intertwined into an undulating bridge body, visitors have a sense of experience when they pass". "The rigid and soft shape is perfectly integrated with the natural scenery of the Fairy House, just like a jade ruyi in the sky, and like a fairy draped silk. The painting is like a screen, and when seen from a distance, the mountains are full of movement, and they also carry beauty and auspiciousness."
All you need to know about Ruyi Bridge
Since it is too amazing to be real, images of a bending, glass-bottomed bridge in China have gone viral. The Ruyi bridge in Zhejiang province looks more like it belongs in the movie Avatar than it does on Earth. Still, China is notorious for building some pretty cool bridges.
Don't get confused between Ruyi bridge and Ruyi island, which is an under-construction artificial island in China, as described in Wikipedia. Initially the wonky walkways is about 140m above the ground, and the glass-bottomed structure, which is 1,400 feet long and suspended 1,000 feet above ground level was first opened in 2016. This architectural and engineering wonder was eventually proven to be true by Snopes, a myth-busting website, after much oohing and aahing.
Since September 2020, the unbelievable bridge has been open to the public. But it didn't seem to get much coverage outside of China until former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield shared a mystical video of it on Twitter in November last year. By that time, it had already attracted over 200,000 visitors.
140 m high 'bending' glass bridge in China baffles netizens, call it 'too crazy to exist'
A bridge in the Zhejiang province of China has baffled people so much that they think that it is not real. The Ruyi glass bridge stands 140 meters above the ground and it is known as the 'bending' bridge because of how it looks.
The wacky architecture that went behind in creating this is throwing people off massively. Two parts of the bridge overlap with one another that makes it all the more fantastical. The bridge was unveiled back in 2017 and was opened to the locals in 2020. For the past year, this has been a big hit amongst them as well as the tourists who come to the country. As per many reports, the Shenxianju Scenic Area's Weibo account stated, "With a total length of 100 meters and a vertical height of more than 140 meters, it spans the east and west gorges of Shenxianju."
The bridge's snippet went viral on all social media platforms recently. According to mirror.co.uk, several people were taken by surprise. While some were stumped by how it was constructed, some thought that it was just 'computer imagery' there it was 'too crazy to be true.' Some even wanted to walk on this rather terrifying bridge as well. "I'd want better handrails," one user chimed in. Another one was game to just see it and go through the walkway. Back in November 2020, a Canadian astronaut named Chris Hadfield posted the video of the Ruyi bridge. Many netizens took to the comments section to say that it just cannot be real.
Ruyi Bridge 如意桥 Rúyì qiáo
Ruyi Bridge (Chinese: 如意桥 Rúyì qiáo) is a footbridge in Taizhou, Zhejiang China, made up of three bridges. It is a pedestrian bridge which was built to cross the Shenxianju Valley and it features a glass-bottomed walkway. The unusual curved walkways are designed to look like a Chinese ruyi. The bridge gained notoriety in the West when Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield uploaded a video to Twitter.
Planning for the bridge began in 2017. The bridge was opened in September 2020 and was visited by 200,000 people by November 2020. Ruyi Bridge was designed by structural steel expert, He Yunchang and made to resemble jade ruyi, which is a Chinese symbol for good fortune. It is a two level 100 m long (330 ft) glass bridge which is 140 m (460 ft) above the ground. The bridge was built to be a tourist attraction, spanning the Shenxianju Valley, and is one of China's 2000 glass bottom bridges. It is the major attraction spanning the west canyons of Shenxianju, in the Shenxianju Scenic Area. The bridge was introduced to the Western Internet when Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield uploaded a drone video of the bridge to Twitter which went viral. The video carried the caption: "I'd want better handrails". Many viewers doubted that the bridge was real, and eventually Snopes opened an investigation and determined that the bridge is real and not a deepfake.
The bridge is wavy and has three separate foot paths, portions of which have a glass bottom.[5] The design has been described as three undulating bridges which are meant to blend in with the natural scenery. Madeleine Grey of The Sydney Morning Herald described the bridge's appearance as a "mix between DNA strand and a futuristic Eye of Sauron." The bridge designer He Yunchang is the same structural engineer who was involved in the design of the "Bird's Nest," a stadium used for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
related:
