Development at its peak

Visitors are drawn not only by karst formations but also a vast number of attractions.

- Yang Feiyue and He Chun report

Zhang Shupeng stands on a platform less than 2 square metres in early March, as winter slightly loosens its grip on the mountainous landscape of Zhangjiajie, Hunan province.

Below him a colossal stone gateway punches through a vertical cliff face 1,300 metres up, as if some giant once drove a fist through the mountain and left the hole as a door to the sky.

Beyond it, thousands of quartz sandstone pillars rise through the mist like the petrified fingers of ancient gods across the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, their peaks floating above the clouds as if the Earth itself has come alive and is reaching for heaven.

Zhang steadies himself for a few seconds before jumping off in a wingsuit, to the cheers of onlookers and their raised phones.

For three or four seconds, he falls at 220 kilometres an hour, about twice the usual highway speed limit. Air slams into his body and face. Any tiny deviation changes his trajectory.

“It is impossible to describe,” he says as he attempts to explain the sensation, adding that it requires intense focus.