A walk in the clouds

Visitors from across China and abroad traveled to see the engineering feat, recalls Shi, who has spent more than a decade guiding tourists.

During peak season, domestic tourists fill the bridge, with 10,000 people a day — the maximum limit. International travelers from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are now a familiar presence, she says.

She still vividly remembers guiding an Italian tour group. Through a translator, they told her the difference between bridge-building in their country and here was "like heaven and earth".

"That moment, I felt so proud," she says.

Halfway across the bridge, Shi stops to mark the highest point of the bridge — 355 meters above the canyon floor. The walkway runs seven meters below the roadway. It gives visitors chills whenever cars race overhead, as the bridge vibrates faintly.

"This is also where the bungee jumping platform is. Visitors pay to leap off the bridge," Shi says.

"Many are young women, and foreigners love it, too."

Over the course of her career, Shi has watched the landscape around her transform. The high-altitude attractions, including bungee jumping, the skywalk and the giant swing, were added in 2021. A cliffside inn opened the same year.

Shi and her husband both work in tourism now. "We don't worry about money anymore," she says.