At the beginning of June Noah and I received the official invitation to participate to an event of Basejump on the south of China. We would have jumped from the Balinghe Bridge, one of the tallest bridge in the world.
Once we got the visa, we took the flight directed to Shanghai, then another internal flight of 2 hours towards Guiyang, in the south of the country.
The event is funded by Chinese government and organized by the local Aeronautic Sportive Federation, with the technical support of Stephan Mueller, a german base-jumper that lives in Asia. The official date of the event was July 21st, keeping the 22nd in case of bad weather. The Chinese government is well known for sparing no expense for the official ceremonies, in fact he wanted to celebrate the opening of this impressive giant building with the presence of 27 of the best basejumpers in the world, able to jump off from the Balinghe Bridge and its 370m.
On July 20th all the athletes did a test jump to familiarize with the local conditions: temperature at 35°C, 100% of relative humidity and an incredible small landing area in the middle of the jungle... Absolutely recommended to do not land outside that area! ...Otherwise it would have been very difficult first aid.
Needless to say, a bridge, where you can jump with the slider, to over 7 seconds of free fall and even jumping with wing-suit is more unique than rare.
The day of the inauguration, we have been welcomed like rockstars! There were Army, important local politics, national tv and over 15,000 people as audience! All of this made this event something 'colossal' to our eyes of basejumpers. It's not the first time for me in China, but this time Chineses have really gone over any expectation.
The next day, we did some fun jumps and one in particular with Noah was awesome, doing some acrobatic performance. I personally think this was one of the best organized event I took part in my career, from one of the most impressive object I had ever jumped off. A big thumb up for the local Aeronautic Sportive Federation, the Chinese Government and Stephan Mueller for making happen such a big event.
Noah and I had a really good time, kind of Turbolenza-Chinese reunion!
Thank you!

(written by Maurizio di Palma)