Take a glass elevator up 200 meters and step onto the world's highest bridge. At the top of one of its towers you reach a café amid the clouds, suspended 800 meters above the river in a canyon called "the Earth's crack."

Welcome to the engineering marvel that is the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Cuting edge technologies – from satellite navigation and drones to smart monitoring systems – went into the making of the high-altitude structure, which is also world's longest-span bridge.

Inside its main cables, fiber-optic sensors enable continuous monitoring of temperature, humidity and stress, ensuring long-term safety.

The bridge has cut travel time across the canyon from 2 hours to just 2 minutes.

And its value doesn't stop there.

Remember the glass elevator? It takes you to viewing platforms and extreme sports facilities. There's also a glass walkway, not for the faint of heart, and water curtain light shows.

And if bungee jumping and canyon swings are too much, the nearby service area is a destination in and of itself, offering panoramic views across the canyon from a dedicated museum, a cliffside hotel and a racing track.

This all has been made possible in a mountainous region once a key focus of China's poverty alleviation efforts – and it has reshaped not just the landscape, but the future of an entire region.

(Cover image: Huang Ruiqi)