Chinese river is fitted with world’s longest floating walkway

China has just opened a unique tourist attraction on the Hongshui River: a 5km floating walkway that turns into a light display at night.

The walkway is located in the south of the country in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, near the border with Vietnam. Its aim is to promote winter tourism to the area, which is relatively underdeveloped. So far, around 60,000 tourists have been to take a look since it opened on New Year’s Day,

According to a report from the Xinhua news agency the pathway is supported by 222,500 floating objects, including a giant bath time duck, that are anchored to the bottom of the river in such a way that they can move up and down as the water level changes.

During the day, visitors can take part in a range of water sports, and when darkness falls the entire path illuminates.

According to Xinhua, the path’s claim to be the world’s longest floating path has been verified by the Guinness World Records.

Image: A section of the path, which opened to the public on New Year’s Day (YouTube)