China has installed a 300-meter glass elevator built directly into the wall of a canyon in Yunnan province, designed mainly to give children from mountain villages an easier way to get to school, according to the outlet Libertatea.
Before the elevator opened, about 20 schoolchildren had to walk steep mountain trails every day to reach class, the report said. A one-way trip could take more than three hours, and the difficulty of the route sometimes forced children to stay overnight at school rather than travel home to their families.
The new lift cuts that journey to about 50 seconds between the lower and upper levels. It travels at roughly 5 meters per second and can carry up to 81 people at a time.
A second glass elevator and a cable car
The structure has been named the Fuyao Stairs. It operates alongside another glass elevator in the same canyon, the Qingyun Stairs, a 268-meter lift that opened in 2022. Both elevators are built from glass and steel fixed directly onto the rock face.
A cable car also runs through the area, with the ride to the final stop taking about 30 minutes. Together, the two elevators can carry roughly 1,200 passengers an hour, and local residents and schoolchildren have access to a free dedicated route.
Yunnan, in southwestern China, is a mountainous province known for its dramatic canyons and karst landscapes, bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Elevators and glass walkways built onto cliff faces have become increasingly common tourist draws in China's canyon regions in recent years.
Built in difficult conditions
Constructing the elevator was a demanding engineering task, according to the report. Workers had very limited space on the canyon wall to operate in, while high humidity and constant fog created further obstacles during the build. The finished system includes backup power sources and extra equipment to improve safety.
The elevator has also proven useful beyond its original purpose. Since it opened, tourist numbers in the area have risen sharply, climbing from about 4,000 to around 15,000 visitors a day, the report said. The higher passenger capacity has also helped ease congestion and has contributed to new jobs in transport, tourism and the hotel industry.
