How Did A Tunnel Turn A Village Into A Tourist Attraction?

A tunnel will always be judged against its goals and stated aims, and given that they are extensive infrastructure projects requiring gigantic pieces of bespoke equipment and miles of well-maintained and vulcanised conveyor belts, this purpose will shape the entire project.

This is why projects such as Rogfast, a major Norwegian infrastructure project that will become the world’s deepest and longest undersea road tunnel once completed, need to be developed with a significant use case, feasibility study and costing plan.

The goal is often to significantly reduce travel times, reduce congestion or to allow for alternative routes between destinations in order to help boost trade and tourism. The latter was, for example, the biggest consideration when constructing the Channel Tunnel.

By contrast, a village decided to build a tunnel to open itself up to the outside world, but with no support to help them, they took matters quite literally into their own hands and showed why conveyor belts are so vital for tunnel construction.

Why Did Guoliang Village Need A Tunnel?

Based in Huixian, in the Henan Province of China, Guoliang is a village nestled high in the Taihang Mountains, leaving its 350 inhabitants largely isolated from the rest of China, living in traditional stone houses.

Whilst typically there is an appeal to having some degree of detachment from the outside world, the village really wanted to be part of the rest of the nation, but was thwarted by the geography.

The only way in and out of the village at this point was the infamous Sky Ladder, an extremely dangerous mountain pass and roughly hewn set of stairs. It was difficult for many people to walk down, let alone while carrying anything from outside the village.

Even the name of the village is a result of this inaccessibility; Guoliang was a Han dynasty fugitive who managed to evade capture from imperial forces chasing him because of the sheer difficulty of traversing the terrain.

For decades, Guoliang’s villagers asked that a tunnel be constructed to enable villagers to reach Huixian, but that request was continually denied.

This was when, in 1972, Shen Mingxin took matters into his own hands.

How Was The Guoliang Tunnel Constructed Without Equipment?

Shen Mingxin was one of a group of 13 of the most able-bodied people in the village, and decided that if the Chinese government would not help them, they would do it themselves.

None of them had ever worked on anything close to this, and not one of them was an engineer. However, they were strong and determined, which was enough to get them started. 

They did not have power tools or any expertise, but they sold their animals and anything of value that would grant them enough money to buy hammers and chisels.

They had no tunnel boring equipment, no drills, no power tools or explosives of any kind, let alone any type of well-maintained conveyor belts that were vulcanised to provide extra grip.

How was it constructed? With exceptional difficulty, so it transpired. The tunnel was carved out of the path of least resistance, but even then, it could take as long as three days to carve out a single metre.

To handle debris, which would usually be taken away from the site using a range of conveyor belts attached to the boring machinery in question, the makeshift tunnellers instead carved out holes in the side of the mountain and dumped it into the valley.

Not only would this be illegal for most tunnel projects, but it also created an additional hazard in the form of tiny barriers and sheer cliff drops.

In the end, following five years of work and the tragic loss of one of the villagers, the 1300-metre tunnel was completed with the types of results you would expect of a village carved by hand.

Was It A Good Tunnel?

In the interests of being charitable, it was as good as you could possibly expect of a hand-carved tunnel made without any knowledge of structural engineering. That the Guoliang Tunnel exists is a miracle, but that it is extremely impractical and outright dangerous should surprise nobody.

With its constant twists and turns, with only small rock windows and pillars to avoid precipitous falls, the tunnel is only really suitable for very slow driving. It is filled with blind turns and constant bumps and kinks, making it an extraordinarily difficult tunnel to drive through.

So dangerous is the tunnel that it is often mistaken for the Yungas Road in Bolivia, a road similarly carved into a mountain that is so dangerous it is often simply called Death Road.

What Was Learned By This?

At the same time, it highlights the important question of purpose that surrounds all tunnel projects. Some tunnels are immaculately built but ultimately do not fulfil their purpose, whilst this tunnel’s astonishing story inadvertently opened up Guoliang in a way beyond Shen Mingxin’s wildest dreams.

It turned what was an isolated village into a truly beautiful tourist attraction, complete with hotels, bridges and an inadvertent appeal precisely because of its imperfections.

No tunnel engineer would willingly design a tunnel like this, but that also makes it look and feel as natural as the mountains they were carved out of.

It highlights the importance of needs for a tunnel project, and through the difficulties that came with a lack of equipment, showcased the importance of effective planning, expert engineering and having the right equipment not only to bore the tunnel but to remove the waste afterwards.