🇨🇳Roads in China
2 roads found in China, Asia
Guoliang Tunnel Road
🇨🇳 China
The Guoliang Tunnel Road is a 1.2-kilometer tunnel carved through a sheer cliff face in the Taihang Mountains of Henan Province, China. What makes this road extraordinary is that it was hand-carved by thirteen villagers from Guoliang Village between 1972 and 1977, using only hammers, chisels, and dynamite. Before the tunnel was built, the only access to the remote cliff-top village was via a perilous set of steps carved into the rock face known as the "Sky Ladder," which was too narrow for vehicles and dangerous even on foot. The tunnel is approximately 5 meters high, 4 meters wide, and features over 30 irregularly shaped "windows" carved into the cliff wall, which provide light and ventilation while offering vertigo-inducing views of the valley 200 meters below. The road surface is rough and uneven, reflecting its hand-carved origins, and the tunnel bends and undulates following the natural contours of the rock. Passing another vehicle requires extreme care, as there is barely room for two cars side by side in most sections. The village of Guoliang, home to only a few hundred residents, has become a popular tourist destination and has been featured in numerous Chinese films and television programs. The surrounding Taihang Mountains offer dramatic scenery of red sandstone cliffs, deep canyons, and cascading waterfalls. The tunnel road is open year-round, though it can be icy and dangerous in winter. It stands as a remarkable testament to human determination and has become one of China's most famous feats of rural engineering.
Tianmen Mountain Road
🇨🇳 China
Tianmen Mountain Road, known as Tongtian Avenue or "The Road to Heaven," is an 11-kilometer mountain road in Hunan Province, China, that ascends Tianmen Mountain near the city of Zhangjiajie. The road features 99 hairpin bends (a number considered sacred in Chinese culture, symbolizing heaven having nine palaces) and climbs from 200 meters to 1,300 meters above sea level. Completed in 2005, the road was purpose-built as part of the Tianmen Mountain National Park development. The road rises steeply through lush subtropical forest, with each hairpin bend numbered and named. The turns are exceptionally tight, and the gradient is severe in places, making the ascent a white-knuckle experience even by bus, which is the primary means of transport on the road (private vehicles are not permitted). At the summit, visitors encounter Tianmen Cave, a massive natural arch 131 meters high and 57 meters wide that pierces through the mountain, visible from the city of Zhangjiajie below. The cave is reached by climbing a further 999 steps from the road's terminus. Tianmen Mountain is also famous for its glass skywalk, a transparent walkway bolted to the cliff face 1,432 meters above the valley floor, and the world's longest commercial cable car ride (7,455 meters), which connects the city to the summit. The road has been used for various automotive stunts and challenges, including racing events and promotional drives by car manufacturers eager to showcase their vehicles on one of the world's most dramatic switchback roads. The park is open year-round, though mountain-top conditions are cold and foggy in winter.