The Golden Bridge (Cầu Vàng in Vietnamese) is a 150-metre pedestrian walkway in the Bà Nà Hills above Da Nang, central Vietnam, that appears to be held up by two enormous weathered stone hands. It opened in June 2018 inside the Sun World Bà Nà Hills resort, sits at roughly 1,400 metres above sea level, and is reached by cable car. The "stone" hands are actually fibreglass over a steel and wire-mesh frame. Within weeks of opening, photos of it spread worldwide, and it has since become one of Vietnam's best-known sights.
Below are the key facts, how the bridge was built, practical tips for visiting, and a gallery of photographs from its first summer.
Key facts about the Golden Bridge
- Location: Bà Nà Hills, Hòa Vang district, roughly 40 km by road from Da Nang city.
- Elevation: around 1,400 metres above sea level.
- Size: about 150 m long and 5 m wide, curving in a loop between two points on the hillside.
- Built: July 2017 to April 2018; opened to visitors in June 2018.
- Designer: TA Landscape Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City, with founder Vu Viet Anh as principal designer.
- Owner: the Sun Group, which runs the Bà Nà Hills resort.
- Purpose: links the cable car station with the resort's gardens while giving visitors a lookout over the mountains.
How the giant hands were made
The hands are the reason the bridge became famous. They emerge from the hillside with the walkway resting on their fingertips, and their surface is cracked, grey and patched with green, as if moss had grown on ancient stone. The effect is theatrical, and many viewers compare it to scenes from fantasy films.
The construction is lighter than it looks. The designers built a steel skeleton for each hand, covered it with wire mesh, then finished it in fibreglass and painted the weathered texture. Design coverage at the time, including Dezeen's, described the hands as purely decorative: the deck actually rests on slim steel supports. The walkway itself is a steel structure with a gold finish, which gives the bridge its name.
A popular interpretation, repeated in travel coverage, is that the hands belong to mountain gods. The designer, Vu Viet Anh, has said the idea came from a world of gods and giant things, and the firm framed the bridge as a golden strip drawn out of the land by giant hands. That reading fits the mountain setting, where cloud often rolls through the valley below the deck.
An aerial view shows the full curve of the bridge and both hands, with visitors lined along the rail. The loop shape lets people walk out over the drop and back without retracing their steps. Photo: News Examiner
Seen from below, one hand rises from rocks with the gold deck cradled in its fingers. The mottled finish was painted to look centuries old. Photo: tournesoul.me / Instagram
A wide shot across a bed of broad-leaved plants shows both hands with mountains behind. The bridge is set into a landscaped hillside rather than spanning a river. Photo: News Examiner
This edited aerial image adds a dramatic sunset sky and a flock of birds. Many of the photos that went viral in 2018 were similarly enhanced, so real views are often hazier. Photo: smashpop / Instagram
A straight-on view shows the four fingers rising above the railing and the thin steel supports beneath the deck. Those supports carry most of the load; the hands are largely decorative. Photo: liyinni_jenny / Instagram
Bà Nà Hills: the setting
The Bà Nà Hills began as a cool-weather hill station built by French colonists around 1919, as an escape from the lowland heat. Most of the original villas fell into ruin after the colonial period. Since the 2000s the area has been redeveloped as a large resort with a replica French village, gardens, a Buddhist pagoda with a large white Buddha statue, and an indoor amusement park.
Visitors arrive by cable car. The Bà Nà cable car, opened in March 2013, holds the record for the longest non-stop single-track cable car, at 5,801 metres. The ride itself, over forest and waterfalls, is part of the experience. Because of the altitude, temperatures are often several degrees cooler than in Da Nang, and fog can cover the bridge in minutes.
Crowds fill the deck as it sweeps behind the larger hand. On busy days thousands of visitors cross, which is why early arrivals get the clearest photos. Photo: News Examiner
A visitor stands at the rail with the hand towering behind her. The fingers are several storeys high, which makes people look tiny in comparison. Photo: Review Đà Nẵng
Visitors walk toward the camera between two hands, the gold railing curving on both sides. The walkway surface is wooden-looking decking laid over steel. Photo: News Examiner
From the hillside path, the hand's thumb and fingers frame the deck against a cloudy sky. Overcast days are common in the hills, especially in the autumn rainy season. Photo: jo0osephine / Instagram
Clouds sit below the bridge in this view, with blue sky above. Mornings after rain often bring this "sea of clouds" effect. Photo: psyajh1004 / Instagram
Visiting the bridge: practical tips
- Getting there: taxis, ride-hailing cars and tour buses run from Da Nang to the Bà Nà cable car station; the drive takes roughly an hour.
- Tickets: the bridge is inside the resort, so you pay the Sun World Bà Nà Hills entry fee, which includes the cable car. Prices change, so check the official site before you go.
- Timing: arrive when the cable car opens or come late in the afternoon. Midday on weekends and holidays is the most crowded.
- Weather: bring a light jacket. The summit is cooler than the coast, and fog can roll in fast; the drier months from roughly February to August usually give clearer views.
- Accessibility: the walkway is level and wide, though crowds can make it slow going.
A moody, blue-toned view shows the hand under heavy cloud with the valley far below. Photo: _catricorn_ / Instagram
From the side, the hand's wrist appears to sink into rock, and the concrete path of the hillside garden curves away below. The rock base hides the steel foundations. Photo: _nna.1001_ / Instagram
Pine trees frame the lower hand, and the bridge's glass-walled station building appears at the left edge. That building connects the walkway to the cable car terminal. Photo: 90_seonmi / Instagram
Along the deck, purple flowers grow behind the gold lattice railing. Early reports called them lobelia chrysanthemums, a name that does not match a real plant; in photos they look more like salvia or a similar purple bedding plant. Photo: News Examiner
A visitor in a hat and backpack photographs the hand from the deck, a scene repeated thousands of times a day. Photo: puta283 / Instagram
(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)
How people reacted online
When the photos went viral in mid-2018, comment sections filled with travel plans and comparisons with fantasy films. A few typical reactions, shared from public Facebook comments:
One commenter said she had once dreamed of a giant hand holding up a bridge, a reminder of how dreamlike the design feels.
Another asked for a documentary on how the bridge and its hands were built, a common question given how convincing the "stone" looks.
A third wondered why projects like this appear in Vietnam and China but not in the United States. Asian theme resorts have indeed invested heavily in eye-catching walkways and glass bridges since the 2010s.
Some called it a new wonder of the world. It has no official status of that kind, but it has appeared on many international lists of remarkable bridges.
And many, like this commenter, simply added it to their travel list.
Why it works as design
Most bridges are built to solve a crossing. This one solves very little in engineering terms; the gap it spans could have been bridged by a simple walkway. Its value lies in the story the hands tell and in how they frame the view. That approach, sometimes called experiential or "Instagrammable" architecture, has critics who see it as a theme-park gimmick. Supporters point out that it drew global attention to the Da Nang region, which has grown quickly as a tourist destination.
Either way, the bridge shows how a single strong image can define a place. If you go, look beyond the hands: the mountain views, the old French hill station history and the cable car ride make the trip worthwhile even on a foggy day.
Sources: Wikipedia: Golden Bridge (Vietnam); Wikipedia: Bà Nà Hills; TA Landscape Architecture; News Examiner; Dezeen: Two giant hands hold up Golden Bridge in Vietnam; photographers credited under each image.
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