China's hottest new tourist attraction is 5,000 feet in the air

Travellers climbing the "sky ladder." (Courtesy Qixing Adventure via CNN Newsource)

China has 3.7 million square miles of land to explore. But more and more young Chinese travellers are opting to see their country from the sky.

The newest of these not-for-the-faint-of-heart structures is called Tianti (“Sky Ladder” in Chinese). It clocks in at 551 feet long (168 metres) and stretches between two cliffs at a height of 5,000 feet, according to Chinese state media.

The attraction is located on Mount Qixing in Zhangjiajie Nature Park, in southwestern China’s Hunan province, an area famous for its complex terrain and diverse landforms.

This particular climbing trail is via ferrata-style, built on the rock wall of a mountain using steel handrails, footrests, tethers and cables to enable people to climb the steep rock walls.

“The feet in this video are mine, and that kid is my son,” said He Qian, whose Tianti climbing video went viral on Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China.

He’s video, in which she showed her feet on the ladder and then slowly panned over to her nine-year-old son sitting on the ladder calmly, gathered hundreds of likes.

“I was not nervous, my son was,” He told CNN, “but he was all right soon afterward.”

He Qian runs a B&B nearby, where she also helps people book tickets for the new attraction.

“Those who like to challenge themselves like doing this,” she added. “ I’ve helped dozens of them get their tickets, they were all scared at the beginning.”

The sky-high attraction in Zhangjiajie receives an average of more than 1,200 tourists per day, according to state-run media outlet CCTV. It has become so popular there was once even a “people jam” in the air.

Zhangjiajie Ferrata has since become a hot trending topic on Chinese social media, with videos like He Qian’s showing breathtaking POVs on the ferrata and the ladder — attracting tens of thousands of likes and shares.

“My hands are full of sweat just watching it!” one commenter wrote under another viral post.

“I wouldn’t try even if someone gives me 10 million,” one commented on Douyin.

Yuan Xiaorui, marketing supervisor of Qixing Adventure, the company that operates the attraction on Mount Qixing, told CNN that the three-hour via ferrata experience costs 580 yuan (US$80).

“The whole process will be accompanied by coaches,” Yuan said. “Clients are also equipped with helmets, safety belts, and buffer bags (hiking backpacks).”

Yuan added that the whole area is regularly inspected and “any problems found would be eliminated in a timely manner.”

The number of people participating in outdoor sports in China has exceeded 400 million as of August, 2024, according to CCTV.

Other sky-high attractions are proving successful around the country, including a death-defying US$56 cup of coffee at a cliffside cafe with views of Taiwan and the world’s “most inconvenient convenience store” that provides supplies to hikers suspended off the side of a mountain in Hunan province.