World's Tallest Outdoor Elevator

Located deep in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China is an engineering marvel that is the tallest of its kind. On this episode we bring you the world's tallest outdoor elevator.

Built in the Wulingyuan area of Hunan Province, the Bailong elevator as it’s called soars 1070 feet or 326 meters tall. The name Bailong Elevator translates literally to Hundred Dragons Elevator. Construction started in 1999 on this project with the opening being in May of 2002. The total cost of construction was around 21 million dollars. The upper 562 feet or 171.4 meters of the elevator is built directly into the quartzite rock wall. There are 3 elevators that take passengers up and down which initially had a ride time of 1 and a half minutes but recently the ascent speed was increased to just 32 seconds. Each elevator car can lift up to 10,800 lbs or 4900 kg.
This equates to around 50 people, better hope no one farts. 1380 people per hour per car are transported up and down the shaft or around 4000 people across all three elevators. Not a place you want to be if the earth starts rumbling, earthquake detectors on the lifts allow them to get passengers out of the elevator cars quickly in the event of an emergency.

Added to the guinness world records books in 2015, the elevator isn’t the only place to get a good view. Viewing platforms at the top are a great place to snap a picture but the elevator is the best way to get a view of the karst monolith rock columns. Located in a world heritage site, proposals for this project were met with push back from environmental groups. The area already had around 5 million tourists a year and it was feared how this elevator would further increase popularity of the region.
Being a UNESCO world heritage site, preserving the mountains was top priority but supporters of the project suggested the elevator would reduce travelers hiking the trails. If you are wanting to hike the mountain it’ll take around 2.5 hours to reach the top. At one point there were numerous hotels and guesthouses that catered to hikers in the region that all of since been removed.

Do you have a fear of heights? Do you think you could ride this elevator? Let us know in the comments down below.

Footage:
Luke Starkenburg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhsopIVvaT4

Neil Dunn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rWHY68D84

Flicker:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kazuhito/2459324089
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kazuhito/2459324505
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kazuhito/2459323879

Check out some of our other videos:

Top 10 Fruits You’ve Never Heard Of Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRdgPyZF45g&feature=youtu.be
Top 10 Fruits You’ve Never Heard Of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKTej1u-7-0&feature=youtu.be

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Intro music thanks to Machinmasound:
Rallying the Defense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruPk4RD19Nw

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