In a Guinness record setting feat, 29-year-old Ahdili walked 1,400 meters on a tightwire fastened between two hills in the Mount Hengshan region of Hunan Province, without a safety belt.

Later six Chinese pilots successfully flew through the 6-meter-tall, 26-meter-wide arch in the Lake Taihu Bridge, Jiangsu Province, in domestically made light aircraft.

At 3:18, Ahdili set foot on the wire after waiting more than one hour for clouds to disperse.

Using a 12-kilogram balance bar, the Uygur superman from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region walked steadily into the clouds and disappeared before the eyes of millions of viewers watching the live broadcast.

The wire spanned the 1,200-meter-high Furong Peak and the 1,290-metre-high Zhurong Peak of the Mount Hengshan, and had a drop of 430 meters into the valley below.

Anxiously waiting on the other side of the rope was Ahdili's wife.

After a lapse of 40 minutes, during which time Ahdili's voice could be heard from a microphone he carried, he finally appeared from the clouds. He arrived at his destination after 52 minutes.

"I almost lost my confidence half way across, the rope was slippery and swinging, and I could see no more than 3 meters in front of me," Ahdili said.

"This has been my most dangerous walk," he said.

But his success has been notarized. Ahdili broke the Guinness world record set by a Canadian in 1995, walking 1,300 meters on a tightwire.

Ahdili has been awarded an honorable certificate from the Shanghai World Guinness Office.

The airshow took place in Wuxian in eastern Jiangsu Province.

Yang Shangfeng from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Jin Liang from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, took the lead flying through a major arch in the Taihu Lake Bridge.

They piloted the "Haiyan Plane" with a wingspan of 15 meters and a body height of 2.6 meters.

Their success was followed by Zhao Jinguang from Hebei Province and Wang Jian'an from Shanxi Province, who flew smoothly through the same arch.

Following the first four flights, Beijing pilots Lin Hong and Li Weiguo flew wing to wing, like a pair of birds, through two major arches at a speed of 158 kilometers/hour.

"The event has not just been an adventure. Stunt flying is an important part of aviation techniques and training," said Wang Jian'an.

(China Daily 10/07/2000)