In the 80s, the Chinese road network had a long way forward. They had no highways, above all, because the bulk of merchandise transport was carried out by its rich rail network. However, something began to change in the mid-decade with the Shanghai-Jiading highway, and in 2005, the Minister of Transportation promised to build 85,000 kilometers in the next 30 years. Of all that network, a small segment is starring one of the most imposing highways in the world.
The “staircase to heaven” from China.
Yaxi Expressway. That “all roads lead to Rome” in China applies to Beijing. Currently, highway communication with the capital is vital due to the entire commercial volume that moves between the main cities of the country. As part of the great Beijing-Kunming highway (2,700 kilometers, nothing less), we have the Yaxi Expressway, a stretch known as “staircase to heaven.”
It is a segment of 240 kilometers that connects the cities of Xichang and Ya’an and that was built between 2007 and 2012 for about 3.3 billion dollars. To put it in context, the average cost of construction of one kilometer of new highway in Spain is 8.8 million euros. It depends on many things, but we are talking about an important extra cost in the case of this highway, and seeing how it is, it seems totally justified.
Leftover. Within those 240 kilometers, the Yaxi Expressway has 270 viaducts to save considerable slopes, but also has 25 tunnels. In total, the latter add up to 41 kilometers underground. One of those tunnels is that of Nibashan, who has the honor of being the deepest of China by descending about 1,650 meters in just 10 kilometers. Necessary? Yes, since a journey that previously took hours around a mountain is now completed in just ten minutes.
But everything that goes down, must have previously upload, and it is precisely why this highway is known as the “staircase to heaven.” The reason is to rise to more than 2,430 meters, with one of the sections raising 7.5 meters per kilometer traveled. There are 51 kilometers of continuous ascent with an average slope of 3%.
That ascension, as well as the complete route if you prefer, can be seen perfectly in this video:
Surrounding mountains. In that video there is something very interesting that we can see: the spiral -shaped tunnels, but it is something that is also better appreciated in this image of the tour in Maps:
The reason is that there are two mountains that do not go through as such, but are “surrounding.” With the idea of minimizing the impact on the environment, this way of drawing tunnels was considered the ideal in a complicated area. In the images in which the relief is shown you can see sections of that ‘snail’ appearing from time to time in the mountain:
Beyond muscle. This highway is interesting beyond its technical achievements. Because left the virguerías aside, the Yaxi Expressway allows to connect a mountainous and traditionally isolated area that allows the local economy to develop and that ethnic minorities such as Han, Hui or Tibetans have integration easier.
Difficult. And, from the point of view of a user of the road, driving on this road is complicated. The weather is changing due to the change of height we experience, it has very technical slow curves and a great slope of both ascent and down, and that difficulty can be seen in various moments of the video that we share above.
But well, beyond this, the “highway to heaven” has become a tourist attraction in the region and is another sample of the powerful civil infrastructure in China. In addition, what most attracts the attention of all this is how the country has undertaken a lot of extremely complex works in just two or three decades. And if we talk about bridges, the thing shoots.
Imagen | XinhuaVideo/New China TV, Curious China
In WorldOfSoftware | Three highways, 20 access ramps: China has the most diabolical exchanger in the world in Huangjuewan
