News Updates

15/08/08
World’s Highest Gondola Lift Opens In China
Doppelmayr has completed a new gondola with eight passenger cabins which reaches 4,843m above sea level in China.  The lift accesses The Aba Great Glacier in Sichuan province, about six hours driving time from regional capital Chengdu.  The top station is 327m higher than the previous record holder, also in China, at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Yunnan province, which was built by another European company, Leitner, opened in 1999, and has a top station height of 4,516m.  The third highest gondola in the world, and the highest at a ski resort, is also in Asia, at Gulmarg in India.  Built by French company POMA its highest terminal is at 3979.5m
Although ski writer Jimmy Patterson did make a ski descent of Jade Dragon and both mountains have snow cover, neither is a ski resort.
The new lift has been built for Aba Dajiuzhai International in a tourist region which attracts two million visitors annually.  The company aims to initially attract 200,000 visitors a year to the lift, which accesses a beautiful mountain lake.  They then aim to grow that business to 500,000 – 700,000 visitors annually following further improvements to the centre. 
The new lift can carry 800 passengers per hour and takes 9.4 minutes to make its ascent.  There are 36 gondola cabins travelling at six metres per second over the 2399m length and 1,226m vertical.

Doppelmayr won the contract in April 2005 and began work in October 2006 and following bad weather delays, completed construction and handed over the lift in late March, and the gondola is now open to the  public.