Viewing platform above 613-meter-deep sinkhole proves popular with tourists

A viewing platform overhanging a sinkhole in the Dashiwei Sinkholes National Geopark in Leye county in Baise, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has become a popular tourist attraction and helped boost the incomes of nearby residents.

Known as the Cloud Sea-Skyship, the platform sits on mountain ridge at an altitude of about 1,450 meters and extends over the lip of a sinkhole with a vertical depth of 613 meters.

The transparent viewing platform, made of reinforced glass supported by a U-shaped steel structure, is 80 meters long and 10 meters wide.

The part of the platform that extends over the sinkhole is 34 meters long, which the company that operates the tourist site says is a world record. Visitors standing on it can take in spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and the sinkholes below them.