5 years of digging a tunnel through a vertical cliff by hand

The magnificent tunnel at an altitude of more than 1,700 m on the Taihang Mountains, China, was carved into the cliff by local residents entirely by hand.

The Guo Liang Tunnel follows the cliffs of Mount Taihang. Photo: People's Daily Online.

CCTV News shared images of a 1,250-meter-long tunnel on a steep cliff in the Taihang Mountains in central Henan Province, China, on YouTube on September 29. This massive structure at an altitude of 1,700 meters was carved by 13 men in Guoliang Village.

The Guoliang Tunnel is the only way to drive into the cliffside village that has existed for 600 years. Before the tunnel was completed in 1972, people from other places wanting to enter the village had to cross a dangerous, almost vertical path along the cliff, including 720 stone steps.

The villagers decided to carve the tunnel through the mountain entirely by hand. The 13-man construction team, led by village chief Shen Mingxin, sold goats and provisions to buy hammers and steel tools. It took them five years to complete the winding tunnel, which is 4 meters wide and has walls 5 meters high, using 12 tons of drills and 4,000 hammers. There are 35 windows along the tunnel where dirt and rock are poured, allowing light to shine in and air to circulate inside.

According to VNE