One of the most dangerous roads on Earth winds through China’s mountain peaks, and it was never built to be easy

The Lanying Cliff Road in Chongqing, China, is one of the most dangerous roads on Earth, but hearing its origin story will leave you completely flabbergasted.

While most people will understandably cower in fear at the thought of simply driving along the road, the locals had no room for fear.

Out of necessity, they carved the perilous road themselves, using their menial tools rather than machines.

As it turns out, everything is just a bit more hardcore in China.

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Why Lanying Cliff Road was built

China is home to some of the world’s most notable highways.

In fact, Beijing is famous for having a ’50-lane highway’, which competes with the widest highway in the world, located in Texas.

However, many rural parts of China remain relatively underdeveloped.

Before Lanying Cliff Road existed, Lanying Village in Wuxi County, Chongqing, was about as isolated as a community could be.

Reaching the outside world meant climbing steep footpaths that clung to cliffs, often in fog so thick you could hear the drop long before you could see it.

Carrying goods, visiting a doctor, or even traveling to school required mountain stamina and a strong stomach when looking down.

Hence, a proper road was sorely needed.

However, there were many challenges.

For one, there was no practical way for construction vehicles to reach the site, because…well, there was no proper road.

Hence, the villagers had to take on the task themselves.

How one of the most dangerous roads on Earth was built

Beginning in the early 2000s, they drilled, hammered, and blasted directly into the cliffs using simple tools and whatever equipment they could haul up the mountain by hand.

Workers hung from ropes over vast drop-offs, chipping away at stone one swing at a time.

Over several years, they carved out a narrow 1.2-kilometer (0.75-mile) road that wrapped around the cliffs like a precarious ribbon.

Eventually the route was reinforced and paved, but its character hasn’t changed, and it remains one of the most dangerous roads on Earth.

The Lanying Cliff Road still squeezes around sharp bends, overlooks dramatic vertical drops, and regularly disappears into drifting fog that gives drivers more suspense than they bargained for.

It’s equal parts scenic wonder and nerve test, depending on how comfortable you are with heights.

And in case you’re wondering about guardrails, they’re placed where space allows, but more often than not, it is a luxury.

Today, the road remains a vital connection for villagers traveling to markets, hospitals, and towns beyond the mountains.

And once villagers make it out of the rural mountains, they can use the newly constructed road to reach the world’s largest train station located in Chongqing, which makes Grand Central Station in New York look minuscule in comparison.

But it has also developed a reputation far beyond Chongqing.

Adventurous drivers, cyclists, and photographers visit for the views, the adrenaline, or simply to marvel at a road built with stubborn determination and a healthy disregard for gravity.

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