Nestled cozily in the forested hills of central Vietnam two giant concrete hands hold up a glistening golden bridge, emerging from amidst the trees welcoming gleeful tourists clicking selfies at the nation’s latest outstanding tourist attraction.
It is designed to make visitors feel as if they are enjoying a stroll on a glittering thread that stretches across the hands of gods.
The ‘Golden Bridge’ has attracted a large number of guests as it was opened in the Ba Na Hills near Danang in June. Images of the bridge have gone viral on social media to the surprise of the architect who had not expected to attract so much attention with this design.
At 150 metres long (490 feet), the bridge snakes through the forest high up in mountains first developed by French colonists as a hill station in 1919.
The area is currently a major tourist attraction, boasting a cable car, replica French medieval villag, including faux castle and cathedral with manicured gardens and a wax museum featuring statues of Lady Gaga and Michael Jordan.
The only remnants of the original French occupants are the crumbling remains of their holiday homes that can still be spotted from the cable car.
But visitors are mostly interested in the newly built Cau Vang, which means “Golden Bridge” in Vietnamese.
The Ba Na Hills project was built by Sun Group, which has divided opinion with audacious projects elsewhere in Vietnam.
In 2016 it opened a cable car on Vietnam’s tallest mountain Fansipan in the tourist hotpot Sapa, prompting complaints from locals who felt it spoiled the landscape and took business away from trekking guides.
Vietnam is no stranger to off-the-wall attractions.
The communist country has long sought to boost visitor numbers and position itself as a must-see destination in Southeast Asia.
It clocked 13 million foreign visitors last year, mostly from China that is a far cry from the 35 million international visitors to Thailand in 2017. Golden Bridge designer Anh said he already has another project in the works: a silver bridge made to look like a god’s strand of hair that will connect to his existing structure in the Ba Na Hills.
Tags: Ba Na Hills, danang, Golden Bridge, Vietnam
