American free solo climbing legend Alex Honnold challenged to climb Taipei 101 skyscraper barehanded, and the live stream caught the attention of Chinese mainland netizens. After Honnold successfully reached the top of the 508-meter-tall building without any safety gear, discussions about the feat continued to escalate on various platforms, propelling “Taipei 101” to the number one trending topic on Weibo.
Honnold began his ascent of the 101 skyscraper at 9 a.m. on January 25th, with the global live stream broadcasted by the streaming platform Netflix. His remarkable accomplishment of climbing Taipei 101 without any protection attracted over 120 million viewers worldwide through the Netflix live broadcast, making it a global focal point of discussion.
On the Chinese mainland social media platforms Weibo and Xiaohongshu, many netizens expressed their interest and engagement with the event. Some netizens had posted on Xiaohongshu a few days before to find like-minded friends to watch the live stream together at a cafe, while parents mentioned that their children woke up at 9 a.m. sharp to watch the broadcast.
By around noon on the 25th, discussions related to the event on Weibo reached 154,000, with “Taipei 101” taking the top spot on the Weibo hot search list.
Honnold climbed the entirety of the building without ropes or safety equipment, relying solely on his hands and specially designed high-friction climbing shoes, and completed the ascent in 1 hour and 31 minutes, significantly ahead of the planned 2-hour timeframe. He became the first person globally to free solo climb the building without protection, setting a new milestone in human extreme sports history and sparking widespread discussion online.
Some mainland netizens shared clips of the climb on social media platforms, following along with the progress and expressing their exhilaration and fear, with comments like “So thrilling!”, “So dangerous”, “Can’t watch”, “I’m more nervous than him”, “Watching from my couch and my legs went weak”.
At 10:43, when Honnold successfully reached the top of the 508-meter-tall 101 building, numerous netizens captured screenshots of his achievement and congratulated him through posts, praising him as “incredibly amazing”, “Alex Honnold is truly a legend”, “A 1.5-hour free solo is simply incredible”.
One netizen on Weibo remarked, “Alex has made history, it’s so unbelievable, and the quality of the building is also top-notch!”
As news of Honnold’s climb spread across Chinese social media, the discussion and interest in the event continued to rise.