Italian thrill seekers head to China for extreme sports on world's highest bridge

GUIYANG, China, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Julian Astor Asdurian Bidogia, an extreme sports enthusiast from Italy who has done BASE jumping for more than 1,600 times, still felt scared and excited before jumping from the world's highest bridge in China.

From Wednesday to Thursday, athletes from 11 countries and regions, including Italy, France, Türkiye and the United States, came to China's Beipanjiang Bridge to participate in the 2023 International High Bridge Extreme Sports Invitational Tournament.

Sitting over 565 meters above a valley, equivalent to the height of a 200-storey building, the bridge has been certified as the world's highest by Guinness World Records.

Bidogia practiced skydiving for 14 years and BASE jumping for eight years, and it was the first time for him to come to China and take part in a BASE jumping event.

"There are a lot of Chinese tourists in Italy, but I never got to really meet people, to meet the culture in China. We have a lot of BASE jumping events in Europe, and I was curious to see how such an event is held here," he said.

Looking at the Beipanjiang Bridge from the outside, Bidogia felt amazed and excited since in his memory, bridges are low objects, but the bridges in Guizhou are really huge.

"I like to jump from things that caught attention," he said.

Bidogia said that for the flexibility of the organizer, the athletes were allowed to do different types of jumps, including doing stunts with a rope before jumping.

It was the first time for Bidogia to jump with a wingsuit from a bridge, because usually the jumpers only do wingsuit flying from a plane or a helicopter or from the mountains.

After the competition, Bidogia immediately shared his experiences in China with friends on social media. "Many of my friends have been asking how to get there. For me, it was a good experience, so I want my friends to have a chance to experience and have a good time as well," he said.

Tamir Dayan, 38, was another Italian who joined the competition.

Interested in Chinese culture, Dayan saved some money and travelled around China for six months when he was 25 years old. He called the trip one of the best journeys he had because of the special cultures, the unique natural sceneries and the friendly people.

For the long distance, Dayan didn't know when he would get to China again. When he got to know the chance of BASE jumping in China, he immediately agreed.

During his stay in China this time, Dayan told Xinhua that Chinese people were still the same - nice, friendly and hospitable.

"The bridge is unique. We have already looked at all around here, and everybody says we need to come back, go climb the surrounding mountains and see if we can jump from them as well because they look big enough," said Dayan, adding that he hopes he could have more time to be in China and have more jumps.