The Guoliang Tunnel
(aka the Guoliangcun Tunnel)

Written by Rick Archer
SSQQ Dance Studio, Houston, Texas

First Published: January 2007
Last Update: October 2009

  Can you see the steps? 
Notice the distance to the valley below!

Guoliang Tunnel

(Rick Archer's Note: I have never been to China.  I have based this report on stories I have culled from the Internet. If you have been there and read any inaccuracies, by all means contact me at dance@ssqq.com  Thanks!)

The Guoliang Tunnel is located in the Taihang Mountains of China.  The little village of Guoliang is situated in the northwest corner of the Henan Province.

There is an interesting story about this tunnel that makes it pretty special.  Before 1972, access to the nearby Guoliang village was limited to a very difficult path carved into the mountainside.  Apparently the village is way way up on a mountain.  The only way to reach it was to travel through valley surrounded by towering mountains, then climb the Sky Ladder.

"The community is approximately 300 people.  It was unreachable to the outside world until a road was blasted into the cliff side.  The village sits atop the cliffs and provides views of the surrounding area.  There are many places to walk and explore in the village and surrounding area."

Guoliang was basically cut off from civilization.  For one thing, it was extremely difficult to bring supplies in and out of the village.  Communication was another problem - there were no telephones.  Furthermore, there is a possibility there was no electricity either.  Cut off from the world, the village was little better than a medieval hamlet.

The picture on the left shows the steps used to climb from the valley to the village high above.  Having been to the State of Colorado here in the USA, I know that most mountain roads and railroads take the path of least resistance alongside rivers that cut a path through the mountains.  I am guessing that back in the Seventies there was a serviceable road that went through the valley down below in the Taihang Mountains.  However, there was absolutely no way a road could be constructed from the valley to the top using conventional methods unless the Chinese government was willing to blast a road out of a sheer cliff... which it wasn't.  The village seemed doomed to live in the Land that Time Forgot.
 
1972, a group of desperate villagers decided to take matters into their own hands - they would carve a modern road right into the side of the mountain all by themselves!  Shen Mingxin was the head of the village at the time.  He insisted that the villagers needed to embrace this project as a way to connect to the vast world beyond.

So the villagers sold goats and herbs to buy hammers and steel tools (and maybe some explosives?). Thirteen strong villagers began the project. It took them six years to finish the 1,200-meter tunnel (a little less than a mile).  The tunnel is basically a one-way road which is about 5 meters high (15 ft) and 4 meters (12 ft) wide.  It is wide enough for two vehicles to pass.

Not only was the project arduous, it was also dangerous.  Some of the villagers died in accidents during construction.  Undaunted, the others continued. 

On May 1, 1977, the tunnel was opened to traffic.  For the first time, cars could now reach the village.

By the way, in addition to Guoliang, there are two other nearby mountain tunnels. 

Xiyagou pictured on the left lies 5 miles due south of Guoliang.

Kunshan pictured on the right lies 2 miles to the southwest of Guoliang. It is within walking distance of Guoliang.

For the complete 2011 story of these two tunnels, click here:
Kunshan Xiyagou

Video of the Gouliang Tunnel

From: david goorney
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 10:35 AM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: GUOLIANG tunnel China

Hi there, enjoyed reading your web page on the Guoliang tunnel in China, thought you might like to see this video I made of the famous tunnel.

Hope you enjoy.  David Goorney

Guoliang Tunnel Video

CIVILIZATION VISITS THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT

Here is a writeup from a Chinese Tourism Website: 

Turning to the north, we now come to the Taihang Mountains in Huixian County. The local government has explored several scenic spots to develop tourism, among which the most attractive were Guoliang Cave with its red mountains (exposed red shale).

Local villagers cut a tunnel road through the mountain and named it Guoliang Cave.  Before the construction of the tunnel, Guoliang Village was almost cut off from its surrounding towns and villages. A dangerous ladder on the side of a precipitous cliff was the only route in and out of the village.

Today the situation has totally changed. Guoliang Village has become a pearl of Taihang Mountains because of its unique scenery and stone buildings.

As you can see from the Tourism recap, this story has a happy ending.  The villager's incredible gamble paid off in a big way.  Around the year 2000, China began to open its borders to the rest of the world.  The government decided the benefits of tourism outweighed the disruption of having outsiders tromping around the countryside.  When government officials visited this area, they decided the unusual tunnel and the beautiful surroundings made Guoliang a perfect tourist attraction. 

Suddenly the little village that had been once cut off from the world had thousands of visitors from every part of the world!  In fact, as of 2009, there are hotels being built in the village itself to accommodate all the visitors.  The area itself has become a national park of sorts.  There are modern walkways and bridges constructed so people can wander all over the area.

Mind you, this work was done by 13 untrained villagers who had to trade practically every animal they owned to buy modern tools. 

They had no idea how their gamble would pay off.   For five years, they labored. Nor could they tend to their farms very much while they worked.  In poker terms, this is called "Going All In." 

The villagers literally bet the farm on this project! 

I doubt seriously that Hollywood has ever heard of this place, but I can imagine the story would make for a very interesting movie.  I remember a goofy 1995 Hugh Grant movie The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.  The movie was cute, but kind of lame.

My point is that if someone can make a film like that, then Guoliang's compelling story should be fair game.  The story of Guoliang's tunnel is definitely a tale of bravery, gamble and sacrifice.

You have to hand it to the villagers.  The moment they opened their tunnel to vehicles, they quickly came up with a great marketing slogan:

- The Road that does not tolerate any mistakes

At a glance, this road doesn't look anywhere near as dangerous as that monster in Bolivia, but on the other hand, you might notice that open stretch in the side of the mountain.  Maybe there is some danger!

Plus with a road only 12 feet wide, I can't imagine much two-way traffic either.  Maybe it's like rush hour contraflow... one way in the morning for tourists, the other way in the evening.

Personally, I doubt there is any danger unless someone isn't paying attention, but so what?

The story here is the remarkable achievement of a small group of uneducated, impoverished people taking a huge gamble so they could join the world. 

I certainly hope those tourists in the picture are keeping a close watch on the traffic. 

One vehicle coming around the corner a little too fast might take them out!

It isn't like they have any place to hide from an oncoming car.  I guess they would have to throw themselves against the side of the rock.

Or maybe they could take their chances and jump off the side.

What do you think?  Good idea?

Here is an excerpt from a writeup I found on the Internet:

"We chose to go through the tunnel.  Sitting by the elderly driver I heard the story about how the tunnel was created. Before 1972, the path chiseled into the rock used to be the only access linking the village with the outside world. Then the villagers decided to dig a tunnel through the rocky cliff.

When I was mulling over what the tunnel looked like, the van started a very steep ascent. I looked up and could not move my eyes away - it was so beautiful!

All of us were excited by the vision. We found ourselves in extremely gorgeous surroundings - against the blue sky, with a path frighteningly narrow, and the cliffs piercing the sky.

All of my fellow "donkeys" stopped talking; some were busy taking photos, some were just dumbfounded. The golden sun shone upon the ground and through the air vents in the rocky wall of the tunnel. We were sometimes in the dark and sometimes in the light.

I was deeply moved and even wanted to cry, for the sacred Guoliang Tunnel and for what the villagers have done - to triumph over nature.

In about an hour, the small van slowly took us to the unsophisticated village surrounded by the towering mountains.

The village, more than 1,200 meters above the sea level, seemed as if it had retreated from the world.  The story of Shangri-La crossed my mind.

Everything there was made of stone: the village gate, roads, bridges, houses, tables, stools, bowls and chop sticks.  It is said the village originated from Guo Liang, a peasant army leader who used to fight there in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24).

There are currently about 83 households in the village with 329 people."

Keep in mind that the Guoliang Village is on top of the mountain. This tunnel goes upwards to the left as you view this picture.  Here is another look at the open stretch of the tunnel. 

Maybe that slogan about not tolerating any mistakes refers to this part of the road!

Take a look at the rubble below at the bottom of the canyon.  That debris is likely the remnants of the open area where they blasted out a ledge rather than continue the tunnel.

The area is completely barren of foliage.  Most pictures of this same location have lush greenery visible.  This suggests that the picture was taken during the construction of the tunnel.

Another reason the area was barren because it was winter time.  Note that many trees in the picture have no leaves.

In this picture, you can make out two vehicles driving on that open stretch.

Too cool.

This picture was likely taken long after the construction was over.

Notice how much vegetation there is compared to the picture above of the same spot which is totally barren. 

 I believe this picture lends support to my guess that the barren pictures were taken during construction.

What is interesting about the picture on the left is to see how narrow the gorge is towards the top. I wonder if there is a bridge up there.

The picture on the right shows how rough the road is. 

In pictures taken down at the bottom of the valley, the roads are smooth and modern.  Since their village was at the top of the cliff, the villagers had to find a way to connect their tunnel to the valley road below.

The narrow stretch in the picture is likely taken towards the top of the tunnel.  It confirms that chiseling and blasting doesn't make for a very smooth surface. 

Both pictures indicate the tunnel isn't wide enough for two vehicles.

Guoliang Tunnel is different from other road tunnels; it is quiet, secluded and mysterious, bright one minute and dim the next, full of twists and turns.

The wall of the tunnel is uneven and there are more than 30 "windows" of different sizes and shapes.

Some windows are round and some are square, and they range from dozens of meters long to standard-window-size.

It is frightening to look down from the windows, where strange rocks hanging above form the sheer cliff and there is a seemingly bottomless pit lying below.

Walking through the twisted tunnel is like walking through a labyrinth as the window light mingles with the shadows inside the tunnel.

And the stroll can be unsettling - you never know when the the sound of a motor might come from behind, sending tourists scrambling desperately in search of a safe place. 

Considering the primitive technology used by the villagers, I hope a trained engineer has taken the time to make sure how safe the tunnel is.

Traveling The Most Dangerous Road In China
Written by Darren
June 2nd 2008

Guoliangcun was another one of those small towns that was incredibly difficult to find. We left Shaolin in the early hours and got on a local bus to Luoyang and then made our way to the long distance bus station in Dengfang.

At first we struggled to find the long distance bus station, because everyone kept pointing us in different directions. I got the feeling they didn't have a clue what we were asking and they just wanted to get rid of us. Occasionally we would approach people for directions that would give us a confused look and then proceed to run down the road to get away from us! We found this reaction to our presence hysterical!

We eventually found our way and got on a long distance bus for a day’s travel. We made our way to Zengzhou and then caught a connecting bus to Xinxiang. Unfortunately when we arrived in Xinxiang we soon realized that we had missed the last local bus to Guoliangcun. We didn't really want to lose a day in Xinxiang because our China visa is running out, so the negotiations with taxi drivers began.

Those Chinese taxi drivers are a real pain!

A Waterfall

Words really can't describe the ornate beauty of Guoliang, the pictures don't do it justice either really. All that can be said is it was amazing. By 10 every night it's bed time simply because there are so few lights in the place.

The next morning we woke up nice and early to the delightful stench of poo. I think it's just something to do with the Chinese drainage systems every where or perhaps they just like piling their poo near the foreigners.

After overcoming the smells of the bedroom we went and bought some snacks for the day ahead, we were going on a walk around all the hotspots of Guoliang, and we had to hurry to beat the throngs of Chinese tourists who would be dithering and shouting at each other ahead of us. We failed for the first attractions, which wasn't that attractive really and went on ahead of them all to really enjoy a beautifully scenic walk, up cliffs, through caves (which may I add we not safe in anyway whatsoever) and past fresh springs.

Which I would like to point out now were not so fresh after my little visit. Along the way we had a number of requests to have photos taken with us. One woman with a very interesting set of teeth took a particular shine to Sarah and even picked a flower for her. Because Sarah is as beautiful as a flower.