Taiwan's new sky bridge opens to public

The sky bridge is located in the Houtanjing Recreation Area of Nantou city.
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A newly constructed sky bridge in Taiwan's central city of Nantou opened to the public for the first time Monday, attracting hundreds of tourists who had to wait at least an hour for a tour of the bridge.

"We arrived before 8am to wait in line," said a visitor surnamed Chen, who left from Taichung at 6am with his family to avoid the rush.

His family of five was among the first group of 150 people to visit the bridge when it opened at 8:30am.

The 204-meter-long bridge, suspended 70 meters above a valley, is located in the Houtanjing Recreation Area in the Baguashan mountainous area on the city's border with Changhua county and gives visitors a clear view of the Changhua plain.

The bridge is only open to 150 people at a time, however, because of safety concerns. The construction of nearby hiking trails have yet to be completed, according to the Nantou county government, which held an inauguration ceremony for the bridge a day earlier.

According to the Nantou county tourism department, admission to the bridge will be NT$10 (US$0.33) this week through Friday and then revert to the normal price of NT$50 (US$1.66). Operating hours are from 8:30am to 5:30pm.