Chinese automaker’s attempt to recreate viral Range Rover ‘Stairway to Heaven’ climb ends in huge mishap

Published on Nov 14, 2025 at 4:38 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis

Last updated on Nov 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones

Chinese automaker Chery attempted to recreate the viral Range Rover ‘Stairway to Heaven’ climb in China, but to cut a long story short – it went wrong.

Like, really wrong – much worse than you can imagine.

The thing is, the Range Rover made it look easy, but it wasn’t.

And Chery’s disastrous attempt proved it.

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The Range Rover made it look like a walk in the park

A while back, in 2018, Land Rover went viral after successfully climbing 999 steps on the ‘Stairway to Heaven” using a stock Range Rover Sport PHEV.

The location Land Rover picked for this challenge was Tianmen Mountain Road in the Hunan Province of China.

Specifically, they picked a section that is known as ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (hence why ‘Stairway to Heaven’), an extremely steep stairway comprising 999 man-made steps.

The Range Rover made it look easy, but, as Chery just proved, it’s not easy at all.

Chery’s attempt went wrong… and then it went ‘wronger’

Chery Automobile, a Chinese automaker, attempted to recreate the Dragon Challenge, but everything immediately went wrong.

And then, moments later, it went even ‘wronger’.

It became clear right away that the SUV (which appears to be a Jetour, not the new Exeed) wasn’t going to be able to climb the steps.

That was bad enough – especially when we remember this is home turf for Chery – but then things went from bad to worse.

After failing to climb the steps, the driver lost control of the vehicle and ended up crashing into the barrier.

Chery has obviously promised to pay for a complete repair of the damage.

That’s going to take some time – and some money.

As for the company’s bruised ego? Money can’t really fix that.

But, sooner or later, they are probably going to give it another go.

So good luck to them.

Experienced content creator with a strong focus on cars and watches. Alessandro penned the first-ever post on the Supercar Blondie website and covers cars, watches, yachts, real estate and crypto. Former DriveTribe writer, fixed gear bike owner, obsessed with ducks for some reason.