Look carefully at the photograph above and you'll see that it's a tunnel dug into the side of a mountain. It is the magnificent Guoliang Tunnel in China's Taihang mountains. Built not by the government, but by villagers alone, their story is as inspiring and impressive as the tunnel itself. Here are photos and descriptions of the tunnel and the village to which it leads, from a variety of sources...
This description, from DarkRoastedBlend:
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. Led by Shen Mingxin, head of the village, they sold goats and herbs to buy hammers and steel tools. Thirteen strong villagers began the project. It took them five years to finish the 1,200-metre-long tunnel which is about 5 meters high and 4 meters wide. Some of the villagers even gave their lives to it. On May 1, 1977, the tunnel was opened to traffic.
This description from China Tourism:
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 metres long to standard-window-size. It is frightening to look down from the windows, where strange rocks hanging form the sheer cliff above and a seemingly bottomless pit lying below. A village, opposite the tunnel, appears to hang on the precipice. Walking through the twisted tunnel is like walking through a labyrinth as the window light mingles with the shadows inside the tunnel. As I walked, a beam of dazzling light would occasionally shoot into the corner and then the sound of a motor would come from behind.Guoliang Village was almost cut off from its surrounding towns and villages before the construction of the tunnel. A ladder on a precipitous cliff, also known as the Heavenly Ladder, was the only route in and out of the village.
For more, see Vena's Breathtaking Slideshow of the Gioliang Tunnel and Village.
Sources:
DarkRoastedBlend
