Since it opened in 2020, the Flying Kiss attraction near Chongqing has garnered a lot of attention – but not necessarily for the right reasons.
It has been described as the “world’s only Gemini interactive flying island” but despite some impressive engineering, it’s not the type of attraction many would like to see replicated – while some netizens claim the Flying Kiss is cute and romantic, the attraction was voted one of the ugliest structures in China last year.
Located in a beautiful natural scenic area, part of the Wulong Baima mountains, and perched right beside a kilometre-high cliff edge, the attraction consists of two 52-metre-tall (170ft) statues, a ‘Prince Charming’ and a nymph or fairy woman.
For the visitor experience, visitors board one of the rotating observation decks where they can freely roam around. The decks are then ‘held’ in the raised hands of the gigantic semi-naked figures.
The statues lie horizontally, top to toe, but when the ride starts, they gradually rise and circle to a standing position, eventually meeting with their faces close together at the top in a gesture that’s supposed to represent the kiss.
If you’d like to ride, a ticket costs about RMB120 (£13, US$18) and despite its looks, the Flying Kiss will offer some fantastic views of the surrounding area.
In the small fishing town of Ísafjörður, Iceland, an exciting development in road safety has just popped up – almost literally. A new pedestrian crossing has been painted that appears to be 3D by way of a cleverly-detailed optical illusion.
Not only does the innovative design give foot-travelers the feeling of walking on air, it also gets the attention of drivers, who will be sure to slow down their speed once they spot the seemingly floating ‘zebra stripes.’ Icelandic environmental commissioner Ralf Trylla called for its placement in Ísafjörður after seeing a similar project being carried out in New Delhi, India. With the help of street painting company Vegmálun GÍH, his vision became a reality.
Scroll down to see photos of the fascinating installment taken by Ágúst G. Atlason of Gústi Productions, and let us know if you’d like to see one of these crosswalks in your own city.
We are building more islands than ever before. In the latest edition of our photographic series Anthropo-Scene, we explore the striking results of humanity’s attempts to colonise the world’s lakes and oceans with new land.H
Hundreds of years ago, the Lau people of the Solomon Islands built around 80 artificial islands in a lagoon, placing bits of coral and rock into the water, piece by piece. It took them centuries.
Throughout history, humans have sought to create dry land within lakes, rivers and oceans, which they could then populate. But the 21st Century has brought a new ambition – and perhaps a touch of hubris – to this endeavour.
We are living in an “age of islands”, according to the social geographer Alastair Bonnett of Newcastle University, UK. “New islands are being built in numbers and on a scale never seen before.”
This new generation of islands are bolder, grander – and potentially more damaging – than anything our ancestors constructed, writes Bonnett in his book Elsewhere: A Journey Into Our Age Of Islands.
The geographer visited human-made islands all over the world, exploring a variety of constructions. Giant artificial archipelagos, created by pouring millions of tonnes of sand into the ocean. Concrete-coated “Frankenstein” atolls, designed to consolidate military and political power. And dizzyingly tall oil rigs extending hundreds of metres down to the seafloor.
While some artificial structures have been reclaimed by nature, that process takes time. Often, there’s little life beneath the waters surrounding man-made islands. “All too often artificial islands are dead zones. Trying to make them live again is hard work,” writes Bonnett. In places like the South China Sea, “once pristine and untouched reefs…have been horribly mutilated: squared off and concreted over”.
But nonetheless, Bonnett found himself drawn to these artificial creations, to try and understand how they were built, and why they came to be. Whether you approve of them or not, they will tell future generations a story of how humanity saw itself in the early Anthropocene.
A traditional house on an artificial island in Lau Lagoon in the Solomon Islands (Credit: Alamy)
A ship in the Persian Gulf pumping tonnes of sediment into the sea, gradually growing an island (Credit: Getty)
Dubai’s map-like The World was intended for the super-wealthy, but many of the islands remain sand, while others are for retail, hotels and apartments (Credit: Getty Images)
The man-made Pearl island, in Qatar, spans nearly 4 million sq metres and cost billions to build (Credit: Alamy)
Swan Island in Paris was created in the early 1800s to protect the city’s bridges (Credit: Getty Images)
Built in the early 20th Century, property on the six Venetian Islands of Miami was sold while they were still underwater (Credit: Alamy)
The Venetian project was meant to be much bigger – but then a hurricane, property bubble and the Great Depression happened (Credit: Alamy)
The Palm, in Dubai, required 120 million cubic metres of sand to build (Credit: Getty Images)
Balboa Island in California was built on a mudflat, and for years residents struggled with poor infrastructure (Credit: Alamy)
Now it’s one of the most expensive real estate markets in the US, populated by 3,000 people (Credit: Alamy)
While oil rigs might not seem to qualify as islands, many emerge from the seafloor, sitting on columns taller than skyscrapers (Credit: Getty Images)
From the dry land of a Scottish village, an oil rig can seem like an alien structure… (Credit: Getty Images)
…but there are few structures more alien-like than the Red Sands Fort in the Thames Estuary, UK, built for anti-aircraft guns in WW2 (Credit: Alamy)
The future of islands? Subi Reef is one clue, part of a huge Chinese island-making project in the South China Sea (Credit: Getty Images)
As well as accruing geopolitical power, artificial islands are also helping China access oil, like this one called Qingdong-5 (Credit: Getty Images)
Create an art piece? Build a snowball fortress? You can do all of this in the coolness of snow. But, how about creating a massive labyrinth? Poland’s popular Snowlandia Zakopane Park just constructed something out of snow that would have the seven-year-old version of you wreathing in excitement, a massive labyrinth.
According to the official Weibo account for the Shenxianju Scenic Area, construction on the Ruyi bridge began in 2017 and was finally opened in September of 2020. In a second post, the park explained that the bridge spans 100 meters across the east and west gorges of Shenxianju. A rough translation of the post read: With a total length of 100 meters and a vertical height of more than 140 meters, it spans the east and west gorges of Shenxianju. Intertwined into an undulating bridge body, visitors have a sense of experience when they pass. The rigid and soft shape is perfectly integrated with the natural scenery of the Fairy House, just like a jade ruyi in the sky, and like a fairy draped silk. The painting is like a screen, and when seen from a distance, the mountains are full of movement, and they also carry beauty and auspiciousness.
Tornado safety measures. If you own a house and you are in the house. The ideas below could really help.
A storm shelter or storm cellar is a type of underground bunker designed to protect the occupants from violent severe weather, particularly tornadoes. They are most frequently seen in the Midwest (“Tornado Alley”) and Southeastern United States (“Dixie Alley”) where tornadoes are generally frequent and the low water table permits underground structures.
The most common tornado shelters have steep stairs, making them inaccessible to people with ambulatory disabilities. The base model, found in some backyards in Oklahoma, is an underground concrete box, like this one.
I would need at least 4 beers in my system before I would walk on this bridge.
Arouca 516 is a suspension bridge located in the municipality of Arouca, in the North Region and the Aveiro District in Portugal. The bridge has a length of 516 m (1,693 ft). The bridge is suspended 175 m (574 ft) above the Paiva River, which it spans. Its name is a reference to its extension in meters (516) and the municipality where it is located (Arouca).
Its length exceeds by 16 m (52 ft) the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge, opened on 29 July 2017, with a length of about 500 m (1,600 ft) and connecting Grächen and Zermatt in Switzerland.
Construction of the bridge started in May 2018. It is a hanging bridge which is supported by two V-shaped concrete towers. The bridge opened on 29 April 2021 to residents of the municipality and on 2 May 2021 to the general public, with prior purchase of the ticket on the internet. Access to the bridge is possible either from Canelas or Alvarenga and a guide will always join the visitor group. The first person to cross the bridge was Hugo Xavier.
True lies was one of the Terminator’s better movies. Especially if you are a fighter jet buff. The Marine Corps Harrier jet scenes were really cool. But in the movie what was that awesome bridge? Well it is described below.
Scenes from the movie:
The Harriers moving in to attack the terrorists
The Harriers evade anti-aircraft missiles fired by the terrorists
The terrorists are on their way to fornicate with the virgins and drink free wine in Muslim Martyr heaven. Not to mention play some cards with Osama Bin Laden and watch porn movies.
More on the bridge
The Seven Mile Bridge is an iconic bridge in the Florida Keys of United States, stretching out into the open sea, connecting Knight’s Key in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. At the time of its completion in 1982, it was the longest continuous concrete segmental bridge in the world, and is currently one of the longest bridges in America.
Seven Mile Bridge actually consist of two bridges in the same location. The older bridge, originally known as the Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, was constructed from 1909-1912 as part of the Overseas Railroad. After the railroad sustained considerable damage during the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, the bridge was refurbished for automobile use only. Dismantled tracks was recycled, painted white, and used as guardrails. It had a swing span that opened to allow passage of boat traffic, near where the bridge crosses Pigeon Key – a small island that once served as the work camp for the Florida East Coast Railway. When Hurricane Donna in 1960 inflicted further damage, decision to construct a new bridge was made.
A new, wider and sturdier Seven Mile Bridge was built right next to it from 1978 to 1982. When that happened, the original Seven Mile Bridge was nudged out of Florida’s transportation system. The vast majority of the original bridge still exists, used as fishing piers and access to Pigeon Key, but the swing span over the Moser Channel of the Intracoastal Waterway has been removed.
The total length of the new bridge is just under seven miles at 6.79 miles (10.93 km), and is shorter than the original. Each April the bridge is closed for approximately 2.5 hours on a Saturday and a “fun run,” known as the Seven Mile Bridge Run, of 1,500 runners is held commemorating the Florida Keys bridge rebuilding project. The event began in 1982 to commemorate the completion of a federally funded bridge building program that replaced spans that oil tycoon Henry Flagler constructed in the early 1900s to serve as a foundation for his Overseas Railroad.
The old bridge is still a popular spot with both locals and tourists, but it’s slowly falling apart. Salt water and storms are eroding the bridge faster than the state can afford to repair it. Much of the bridge is now closed – only a 2.2 mile section of the Old Seven Bridge is still open to pedestrians and cyclists.
Two years ago, a nonprofit community group called “Friends of Old Seven” was formed to try to preserve, and if possible, repair the bridge. The Florida Department of Transportation, which owns the bridge, cannot afford to sink a lot of money into the bridge’s upkeep, but is still willing to donate half of the $18 to $20 million required to repair the bridge. The community is now working hard to put up the other half.
