Remote villagers carve out a cliffside road to prosperity

At dusk, the stone houses climbing the hillside are bathed in an amber glow, their rugged walls softened by the twilight. The murmur of a stream blends with visitors' laughter, composing a melody of lives lived close to the land. From the homestay kitchens, the savory smells of food mingle with the clang of woks. Silent in the gloaming, the cliff road bears the chisel marks that speak of new days hewn from the deep mountains — echoes now reaching a wider world.

Seen from afar, the zigzag road winds through towering cliffs, dark tunnels and picturesque mountain landscapes. Although new roads linking the once-isolated Xiyagou village in Lingchuan county, Shanxi province, to the outside world have been built in recent years, it was through a 7.5-kilometer tunnel road built into the steep mountainside that the village deep in the Taihang Mountains first gained access to the outside world.

It took three decades for local people to chisel the path that not only changed the destiny of the whole village, but also inadvertently created a thriving tourist attraction.

Visitors marvel at the thoroughfare, which is embedded in a vertical cliff face reaching as high as 600 meters, with rock walls on one side and a sheer precipice on the other.

The road is listed on the website dangerousroads.org, a popular online resource for discovering the world's most challenging roads and mountain passes, attracting the attention of international adventurers.

"This road features breathtaking scenery of the Taihang Mountains landform — a combination of cliffs, cliff eyes (man-made openings carved into mountain cliffs for ventilation and light) and canyons," said Li Li, head of Lingchuan county's culture and tourism bureau. "Visitors can immerse themselves in multiple extreme experiences, including driving the road, cycling it or hiking in the mountains."

Among the cliff roads built into the Taihang Mountains, the Xiyagou pass is among the earliest, took the longest time to complete, and posed the greatest construction challenges.

In the past, the steep cliffs stood as natural barriers, isolating this small village from the outside world. Generation after generation, most people born in this hidden valley lived and died without ever traveling beyond the mountains.

"Previously, 90 percent of villagers had never left their hometown," said Song Zhilong, 71, a former village head who took part in the construction of the pass. "They were ignorant of the world beyond the mountains."

In order "to survive, to leave the mountains and to ensure future generations are no longer impoverished", villagers began building the road in 1962 with primitive tools. Across three generations, they faced a constant struggle — no specialized skills, no machinery and never enough money.

"Carving such a perilous road along the vertical cliffs, hammer by hammer and chisel by chisel, it's hard to believe without seeing it with your own eyes. And even standing right there, it's still beyond imagination," one visitor commented on Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, last year.

Today, the natural beauty of the Xiyagou village is available to more visitors, and tourism is developing rapidly. After seeing the breathtaking road, visitors can enjoy the slow idyllic lifestyle of the village, staying at locally run homestays, tasting the local food and experiencing the village folk customs.

The road is also part of the Taihang No 1 tourist highway, a key tourist artery spanning approximately 1,000 km and connecting over 90 scenic spots and attractions in Shanxi.

"This remarkable road has rewritten our destiny. It is our passage to prosperity, our bridge to the world, and the very essence of our brand. It has carried us out of poverty and isolation, transforming our humble mountain village into a celebrated national tourist destination," said Guo Yudong, Party chief of the village.

Travel tips

How to get there:

Self-driving or scheduled buses from Jincheng city to Lingchuan county, Shanxi province, and then transfer to the Lingchuan-Xiyagou tourist shuttle (2-3 daily services).

Best time to visit:

May to October.

What to do:

Take a sightseeing bus through the cliff tunnels and peer down into the valley below through the more than 30 "cliff eyes". The Chiyan (red flame) grand canyon is at its most photogenic during sunset.