Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge is the world's longest and highest pedestrian glass bridge located at Zhangjiajie National forest Park in northern Hunan, China, also referred as the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass bridge. Zhangjiajie Glass bridge was officially opened to visitors on August 20, 2016.
The Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge is 385 meters (1263 feet) long and 6 meters (20 feet) wide. The height of the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge is 300 meters (984 feet) above the canyon floor. The Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass bridge is designed by renowned architect and poet, Professor Haim Dotan. His design concept of the bridge is an Invisible Bridge that blends in with nature and harmonise with Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.
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| Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass bridge taken from the amphitheater in poor weather with rain and fog over the canyon. It lives up to the design concept of "Invisible Bridge" and the background blends in like a backdrop from a Chinese painting. -- Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 with aperture set to f/3.5, shutter speed 1/100 seconds, lens at 4.3mm or 25mm (in 35mm film) ISO set at 80. |
Visitors to the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge are only allow to carried wallets and mobile phone when going on the bridge supposedly for safety reasons? However the implementation depends on the security and ticketing staff on duty. As for bringing camera to the bridge your mileages varies depending on the security on duty; some cameras slip through and some are unlucky.
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| A compressed telephoto view of the center of the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass bridge. The bridge is designed with a capacity of 800 visitors at any one time. Rain drops on the camera lens had caused some blurriness in some part of this image -- Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 with aperture set to f/5.5, shutter speed 1/80 seconds, lens at 28.7mm or 167mm (in 35mm film) ISO set at 120. |
The Olympus Pen E-P5 was the unlucky one - it went only as far as the entrance. Fortunately my wife's friend got through with both her iPhone and a Panasonic Lumix TZ70 Travel Zoom camera. She let my wife used her Lumix TZ70 travel zoom camera while she herself was happy shooting with her iPhone.
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| Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge is constructed of steel structure suspended from 4 pillars on both edges of the canyon. Here two of the pillars can be seen at one end of the bridge under the rainy and misty weather. The pillar towers are covered with trees, plants and rocks to blend into the Canyon cliffs as per the bridge design concept. -- Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 with aperture set to f/3.4, shutter speed 1/160 seconds, lens at 4.7mm or 27mm (in 35mm film) ISO set at 80. |
That was October and everybody was looking forward to see autumn leaves, yellow and orange canyon floor under the bridge. However the weather wasn't kind at all on Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge. Instead they were greeted with rain, wind, dampness and sudden gusts of wind and thick fog. This definitely is not the best condition for travel photography but you just need to make the best of the situation. The unfavorable elements also presented an opportunity for some unique travel photos that are worthier than the average cookie-cutter style travel images.
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| The glass floor of the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge consists of 3 layers of 16 mm-thick 3 x 4 meters tempered glass panel laminated with SGP film on the girder of the steel structure, a total of 120 glass panels were used.100% ultra-Clear Glass are used in the construction of the bridge bottom to ensure the "invisible bridge" concept -- Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 with aperture set to f/4, shutter speed 1/80 seconds, lens at 4.3mm or 25mm (in 35mm film) ISO set at 80. |
Now a short story about this Lumix DMC-TZ70 travel zoom camera. It happened over a year ago. My wife's friend asked us to shortlist a new camera for her to use mainly for travelling to replace her old Olympus Mju that had developed some problems. We shortlisted 3 cameras - a Sony Cybershot HX90V super zoom, a Pansonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 and a Canon PowerShot SX700. After trying those cameras in the shop she decided on the Panosonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 travel zoom camera.
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| The waving handrails at both sides are to add dynamism and movement to the design of the Zhangjiajie Grass Bridge and to signify and harmonise with the magnificence of the Zhangjiajie National Park. From the time it was opened the bridge attracted tourists from local and abroad, rain or shine. However the bridge may be closed in very severe weather condition. -- Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 with aperture set to f/3.3, shutter speed 1/250 seconds, lens at 4.3mm or 25mm (in 35mm film) ISO set at 80. |
Now over a year later we are actually using a camera that we shortlisted for a friend. The photo on this blog post are all taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 and all shot in JPEG format; we should have tried out the RAW format as well. Surprisingly the JPEG file responded quite well to post processing with Darktable. Some details in the highlight and shadow area in some of these photos were recovered in Darktable. Tone curve was lightly adjusted in some photos to bring back contrast from otherwise very dull bad weather images.
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| A bridge to nowhere, the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge is not leading to anywhere but to an amphitheater on one end. The architect of the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge Professor Haim Dotan dreamed of "music in the clouds, dance in the skies between heaven and earth" therefore he envisioned an amphitheater at the end of the bridge for the dream to come true. -- Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 with aperture set to f/3.3, shutter speed 1/200 seconds, lens at 4.3mm or 25mm (in 35mm film) ISO set at 80. |
We are pleased with the images from the Panasonic Lumix TZ70 travel zoom camera under the adverse weather condition. The Panasonic Lumix TZ70 with its sharp 30x (24-720 mm) zoom lens and the 1/2.3" image sensor captured reasonably good images. Adding to the camera small size and weight made the Panasonic Lumix TZ70 an ideal camera for travelling.
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| Another view of the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge from the amphitheater. The poor weather condition and low visibility had allowed the bridge to disappear and blend in with nature just as the bridge designer intended. -- Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 with aperture set to f/3.3, shutter speed 1/160 seconds, lens at 4.3mm or 25mm (in 35mm film) ISO set at 80. |
The Lumix DMC-TZ70 travel zoom camera is now superseded by the newer Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 which includes 4K videos. However The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 shoots better still photo compared to the newer DMC-TZ80 which shines at better videos with its new 18 megapixel sensor that shoots 4k videos and 4K photos.
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