SAEDNEWS: According to Guinness World Records, the Bailong Elevator in China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is the world’s tallest outdoor elevator. The park is renowned for its breathtaking sandstone pillars, which rise dramatically from the forest floor.
According to Saednews, The Bailong Elevator serves as a gateway to several of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park’s most famous attractions, including the Golden Whip Stream, Tianzi Mountain and the Southern Sky Column, which was later renamed “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” in reference to the floating mountains featured in director James Cameron’s Avatar.
Although the world’s tallest outdoor elevator is now more than two decades old, it remains one of the park’s most popular attractions, offering visitors a fast and convenient way to reach spectacular viewpoints. Many believe the dramatic landscape of Zhangjiajie helped inspire the extraordinary scenery of the 2009 film Avatar.
Located in China’s Hunan Province, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is renowned for its towering, pillar-shaped rock formations. Their distinctive appearance bears a striking resemblance to the floating mountains of Pandora, the fictional alien world portrayed in the movie.
Built directly alongside a cliff, the 326-meter-high Bailong Elevator provides dramatic views of the surrounding mountains. It consists of three double-deck elevators, each capable of carrying up to 46 visitors to the summit in less than two minutes.
Visitors can also hike to the top, although the journey takes around two and a half hours.
Completed in 2002 at a reported cost of 180 million yuan (about $26 million at the time), the elevator was controversial from the beginning. Local experts and researchers criticized the project, arguing that construction, which began in 1999, had damaged the area’s natural landscape. Safety concerns and the wider controversy led to operations being suspended just three months after construction began.
At one point, authorities even considered dismantling the structure. However, the elevator reopened 10 months later, in a saga documented by China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
More than 20 years after its opening, the Bailong Elevator has become one of Zhangjiajie’s most recognizable attractions. The wider park has welcomed more than 60 million tourists over the past two decades.
Zhangjiajie is also home to one of the world’s highest bungee-jumping platforms, located on the famous Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge. When it opened in 2016, the bridge was promoted as the world’s highest and longest glass bridge of its kind.
