October 8, 2025 — 30th Anniversary of The Great China Skywalk by Jay Cochrane — On October 28, 1995, Jay Cochrane walked across the sky over Qutang Gorge in the heartland of China, completing the greatest high-wire walk of all-time. In 53 minutes, he traversed the 2,098 feet at a height of 1,498 feet above the Yangtze River. I was hired to photograph the event and use the earliest version of the Internet to distribute images to the world. I was a digital cowboy. No one had even coined the phrase “digital road warrior.” Here’s my story within Jay’s story.
During the ten days of set up that began my experience with Jay Cochrane, the realization hit of what I was witnessing. This was an engineering marvel, an upside down suspension bridge, created only with manual labor.
Jay said to me, “Have you ever really looked at the Brooklyn Bridge? I’m just using wires attached to rocks to stabilize my roadway.”
On my first trip to the wire with Jay, a flat bottomed boat ferried us across the Yangtze River to the base of the Chalk Wall. Qutang Gorge was cavernous, with current so swift that maneuvering to shore was a battle. Guide wires fell to earth, wrapped around car-sized boulders on the riverbank.
From each shore, the new trails were arduous, climbing 1,300-feet to the summits. On that first day, Jay was tightening guidelines, bringing the roadway into line for his afternoon stroll. Dropping from the main cable too high to see, the guidelines were spaced every 20 feet for almost 2,100-feet, a total of 105 equaling over 35 miles of wire.
The Chalk Wall was a canvas covered with carved inscriptions dating from as far back as the Song Dynasty, 1,000 years ago. Two characters named “Qutang Gorge” were carved by Zhang Boxiang of the Qing Dynasty over 400 years ago. Some of the carvings from the Chalk Wall were cut from the cliff face and moved to higher ground.
Carved into the northern mountainside, the Plank Road is a major thoroughfare for non-sailors through Qutang Gorge. The road winds 300 feet high chiseled into the cliff, an escape route built around 300 AD. The ancient roadway became an anchor point for many of Jay’s support wires.
This was the Grand Canyon of China.
The Three Gorges Dam created a 400-square mile lake, inundating the river bank, and in the end, over a million people would be displaced, with Fengjie, and many other towns, relocated.
Jay Cochrane’s Great China Skywalk is a lasting testament to Qutang Gorge before the flood.
On October 28, 1995, Jay Cochrane walked across the sky over Qutang Gorge in the heartland of China, completing the greatest high-wire walk of all-time. In 53 minutes, he traversed the 2,098 feet at a height of 1,498 feet above the Yangtze River. I was hired to photograph the event and use the earliest version of the Internet to distribute images to the world. I was a digital cowboy. No one had even coined the phrase “digital road warrior.” Here’s my story within Jay’s story.
October 10, 2025 -- 30th Anniversary of The Great China Skywalk by Jay Cochrane
The Commemorative Cover for Wire-walking in Kiumen
The ’95 International Exhibition of High-Altitude Wirewalking Across the Chinese Three Gorges on Changjiang River would hold at Qutang Gorge of Fengjie County Sichuan Province on October 28, 1995. The mountain peaks on both the banks of Qutang Gorge stand facing each other, which is called Kuimen. It has always enjoyed the reputation of being a Impregnable Pass under Heaven. The players headed by Jay • Cockren the American World Great Master of Maintenance of Equilibrium who have walked across the Qutang Gorge on the high wire which is 375.1 mteres High and 628.5 metres long, have breaked Guinness World Records by way of high-altitude walking with shock, adventure, rareness and uniqueness. To memorize this activity, the Post Office of Fengjie County Sichuan Province issued this one Commemorative Cover.
Designer of Cover Postmark: Zhou Li
The Post Office of Fengjie County Sichuan Province published the Commemorative Cover for The Great China Skywalk, but there translation titled the Great China Skywalk as the ’95 International Exhibition of High-Altitude Wirewalking Across the Chinese Three Gorges. That title has never registered with me. Every time I see it, maybe every five years, I say “Wow, I’ve never called it that.”
The event was the brainchild of the China Sports Federation to draw international attention to the region before the completion of the Three Gorges Dam. If you have never read about Glen Canyon in the United States, you should. Early explorers said it was grander than our Grand Canyon. I began feeling the same kind of loss.
Qutang Gorge was the smallest of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze, yet it had mystique and wonder. Two peaks, Mt. Baiyan (White Salt Mountain) in the north and Mt. Chijia, form the pillars of the Kui Gate, the entry into the five-mile long canyon. Clinton Randall, Steve Sless and I found fissures that ran into the cliff faces with mini waterfalls. It felt ancient and revered. It was the “Impregnable Pass under Heaven” for the people of Fengjie County.
