Perhaps the LAST update to this, by far the most visited post on RickMcCharles.com:
location of Guoliang – Google Maps
If you use Google Earth software, a link to the location can be found on this page.
Aside from the location links, George Novak also found a 2003 travelogue posted on a Chinese website:
… there are two ways to get to the village. One is to climb the Tianti, a stairway cut into the rocky mountain, while another is to travel through the Guoliang Tunnel.
We chose the tunnel. Sitting by the elderly driver I was lucky to hear the story about the tunnel.
Before 1972, the path chiseled into the rock used to be the only access linking the village with the outside world. Then the villagers decided to dig a tunnel through the rocky cliff.
Led by Shen Mingxin, head of the village, they sold goats and herbs to buy hammers and steel tools. Thirteen strong villagers began the project.
It took them five years to finish the 1,200-metre-long tunnel which is about 5 meters high and 4 meters wide. Some of the villagers even gave their lives to it. On May 1, 1977, the tunnel was opened to traffic.
When I was mulling over what the tunnel looked like, the van started a very steep ascent.
I looked up and could not move my eyes away – it was so beautiful!
Natural Charms Soothe City Stress
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Nov 4, 2006
LoriMc found conclusive evidence:
The Light at the End of the Guoliang Tunnel – China Tourism magazine
More photos of the region on Jongo.com
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Not Bolivia, Peru, Taiwan nor Sichuan province in China.
How can it be so difficult to locate this amazing road?
LoriMc commented on this blog post, pointing to a flickr set including this image:
It appears this road is in Taihang Mountains of China. I ASSuME this because the photographer called his set Taihang – gorge hiking.
Not conclusive, but the best evidence so far. Thanks LoriMc!
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updated post from Nov. 3rd
Mystery solved (I think).
Overnight many including Warren Long discovered that these "Bolivian" road photos were actually taken in Sichuan province, China. These are the cliff roads of the Tibetan plateau, off-limits to tourists when I was hiking there in 1997.
At that time only military vehicles were allowed.
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original post from Nov. 2nd
Thousands of websites are tagging this the Stremnaya Road in Bolivia — the “road of death”.
I doubt that is correct. Locals have denied it on the Bolivia Web blog.
Sounds to me like people are confusing these photos with “the world’s most dangerous road” in Bolivia. I’ve been there. This photo was not taken there.
It’s not Cañon del Pato in Peru as some suggested. I’ve been there too and I’m pretty sure these photos were not taken on that road.
I expect it is in the Andes … somewhere.
Leave a comment if you solve the mystery.
George checked out the Central Cross-Island Highway (Chungheng) linking the east and west coasts of Taiwan. The highway cuts through some of its most rugged land, including the famous marble Toroko Gorge. <
Rick McCharles 
I’m glad you said that Rick. I saw your pictures of the Most dangerous road and it did not look like this at all. So, confirmed. When I first saw it I immediatelly thought maybe northern Italy (I’ve seen their cliff roads first hand), especially since it has the stone guardrails. I don’t believe the Bolivians would ever go to such extravagance. They would just leave it with a sharp shoulder. Also, what makes me think Europe is that in order to build such a road the amount of traffic along it would have to justify such a project. Which means fairly dense population in the vicinity or some very desirable resources nearby. Europe sounds more likely. A project like this just sounds so non-Latin-American.
Having said that, the canyoun certainly looks authentic South American style, but the road does not. If it’s a photoshop fake somebody certainly went to a lot of trouble to create it.
Check out some of these links of northern Italy
http://images.google.com/images?q=gallerie+pasubio&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images
Update: Or Taroko Gorge in Taiwan (Chungheng), this one looks very close
http://foto.tyst.nu/TarokoGorge
http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/taipei/crossislandindex.htm
I’m not sure I agree with Warren about the “Tibetan” theory. I have scoured the net for any other photos to support the Tibetan plateau road theory. There are none (that I can find) other than the ones posted. I continue to stand behind my previous observation that if this was a real location other photos would exist (how could you not take one), and it’s probably a clever composite of the Taroko road and some other canyon.
Until somebody can post even one other picture supporting the location we have to remain sceptical as to it’s authenticity. Any takers?
Today I see the many comments on the Bolivia posts now asserting it is in China. (Some based on this post.)
Still no conclusive proof anywhere.
You are right on track, those photos that are being published are NOT the WMDR in Bolivia, I should know, I’ve guided it more than 500 times, a small correction to your note above, none of the agencies RENT bikes, they actually offer full tours… although I’ll warn you that you get what you pay for! If you want to see tonnes more photos of the WMDR (and people biking it check it out here: http://www.gravitybolivia.com/gallery/PhotohighlightsfromtheWorldsMostDangerousRoad)
Thanks for keeping it real!
I found a couple of similar-looking photos on http://www.flickr.com that indicate that the road is in the Taihang area of China. See for yourself:
I’m currently having trouble finding other information or photos to verify the location as being the Taihang mountains.
Update: Found it. It’s the Guoliang Tunnel. Excavated in the 1970’s.
http://www.hkctp.com.hk/eng/magazine/284/STORY3.ASP
And more photos here:
http://search.jongo.com/searchPhoto.php?page=3&keyword=Village&direction=&sort=
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A few years back I was taken on a road a few hundred miles north of Lima Peru that had many of this roads characteristics. It is interesting to note that when driving on the road it didn’t seem as amazing as the pictures looking down on it detail. It is one lane with pass arounds scattered along it. Not sure if this is the same road however it was built the same….into the mountain.
Cañon del Pato in Peru is no doubt your road, the most “exciting” in Peru.
No, this is not it.
I was there as well several years ago.
I have been on the most dangerous road in Bolivia. It is not the Guoling Tunnel in
China. It is not the road out of La Paz that they do gravity biking tours. I can’t
remember where the hell it was, but I think out of Santa Cruz on the way to some
Inca Ruins (Tiahuanaco?). Anyway, check out http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/bolivia/htm
This IS the most dangerous road in the world. Throw in a madman bus driver,
heavy rain and mud. You get the idea. Check out the website. It’s worth it.
Aren’t vehicles in Bolivia left hand drive? These photos indicate the vehicles are driving on the LEFT side of the road, which means they are RIGHT HAND DRIVE vehicles. Mind you, they might just be hugging the cliff!
Well… The ones of the cliffs are. The ones where they carved the rock are not unless it was a road built by the Paraguayan prisoners of war in the 30’s when president Salamanca commissioned the finding of the “El Dorado” to fund the war.
President Slamanca believed that the expedition of Pedro de Ursúa down the Marañón and the Amazon would lead to El Dorado and thought that finding it would give the Bolivians all the needed funds to pay for a monster £3 million arms deal with the Vickers arms corporation made in 1926 by president Hernando Siles Reyes. The amount was later reduced to to only £1.25 million.
To Mike Cannon,
I drove on the bolivia yungas road a few time when I lived in this country. On this rad, you drive on the left for the driver to be on the downhill side and see exactly where you put your wheels. The vehicle going down comes across a vehicle coming up, it has to back UP to the passing area to allow the climbing vehicle to proceed. It is then much better to be on the left hand side of the road and lean outside the window to check where your wheels are: less than 50 cms away from the road edge. Needless to say that you do not open the left door unless you want to fall down a few hundred meters.
I am not sure I would have the guts to drive on it again anymore!
The first road is not situated in Bolivia! Someone tried to compare both roads, but erroneously confued the first location by mentioning Bolivia on both frases. First is the road in China and then there is the road to Coroico Yungas from La Paz, Bolivia.
You’re correct, Arnaud: the road to Coroico is left-driving, probably the only-one in the Americas, and I understand it hasn’t tunnels.
By the other hand, the other road with consecutive tunnels, solved by Rick as in China, is so remote to be in The Andes. The rocks in this cordillera, mainly in Bolivia and Peru, are IGNEOUS. But in the road of the tunnels, we can clearly see the caracteristic layers of a SEDIMENTARY rock. Whom still thinks this road is in The Andes ( Pato or Colca canyons ), you can hardly see such a deep sedimentary deposit in this cordillera.
I went to Cañon del Pato in Peru last january by car, and i’m shure that the road isn’t that! The road Lapaz Coroico, in Bolivia, I know only by photos, but the tunells dont make composition with the region.
For sure is Guoliang Tunnel in China and the George comments was out of the toilet!!!
The second segment is definitely the road to Coroico Bolivia – ‘The world’s most dangerous road’ as I went down it last year while living in Bolivia and regognise it.
I’m not sure but I think that I saw the same road in Konopishte,Macedonia and it’s very dangerous ,the roud is very tight (inner circle )and the vehicles are driving on the RIGHT and the LEFT side of the road,but they are RIGHT HAND DRIVE vehicles.I’ll ask Cacko Konopishki if he has some pictures of it and if it I’ll post it.
I saw something similar even most dangerous in the region of Mariovo, Macedonia. The road is called “Eagle Road” and it’s made by Krale Marko and Black Arapina 5 century ago. I don’t want to think about this phenomena, so scary, so breathtaking. Till now, I think anybody hasn’t pass to the end of the road. Of course I’ll ask Itar Pejo if he has some pictures of it and if he has I’ll post it.
I´m from Bolivia and I never saw or hear something about that place. I was in los Yungas road named “The world’s most dangerous road” and definitely it is.
Yo soy Boliviana y este camino definitivamente es en Bolivia ya que la clase de roca que se puede ver en las fotografias y el mismo paisaje coincide con el que se encuentra en los yungas paceños, sin embargo puedo afirmar que no es el camino a coroico puesto que yo viajo constantemente en él.
Provablemente este camino se encuentre en sudyungas y no asi en nortyungas como la mayoria afirma, ya que no existen tuneles en el camino a coroico.
I was interested in the Bolivia-China dispute. I found the following from the Shanghai Star which clearly indicates the “Guoliang Cave” (the name of the road, constructed between 1972 and 1977) is in China, not Bolivia. See: http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2005/0310/tr16-1.html The photographer is named Gyang, and links on the above site show his photos or other places taken on this trip, as well as of other trips.
Thanks Steve. Looks pretty conclusive.
I did not see any links in the article, though, to other photos or trips.
The pictures of the road carved into the rock with tunnels I do not believe are from Bolivia. On some websites, however, along with these pictures are additional photographs which include narrow roads carved along the sides of steep mountains, some showing buses and trucks traveling on the roads. I have been to Bolivia and I do think these pictures were taken in Bolivia, probably along the La Paz – Yungas road.
You can tell by looking at the pictures they are of two different places. And I am not even wearing my glasses!
Some photos puplished on the web combine two roads: The Guoliang road in China and the Stremnaya road in Bolivia
Found some great info here on Guoliang Tunnel. I am an American living in Zhengzhou, Henan Province which I believe is a few hours south of that tunnel. I have been looking on info as to where exactly it is and how to get there. If anyone has detailed info, please send it to me at flphotog2002@yahoo.com Thanks.
You morons….I’ve been there. It’s in Sao Bento de Sapucai, in Brazil. My car almost fell over the edge. Everyone is invited for a cup of coffee and some cheese breads, after driving two thousand miles on that crazy road. See ya!
I am peruvian living in Bolivia and this road is not in these countries. I have looked it up in the web (including China), and it amazes me that noboby in the country of origin would advertise this type of road (including Brazil such as caipira mentions) Because of the lack of advertisement it is probably a 3rd world country in the middle of nowhere with little or few tourism ads, or a fake PhotoShop
Now there is an email circulating that has photographs of both the roads in Bolivia and the one in China and labels them all as of Stremnaya Road! What a confusing mess.
Lots of pics of the Guoliang Rd/Tunnel investigating some of the links above. Fastest check = go to Virtual Tourist. Same for Coroico or Yungas.
Wickipedia has the very same fotos as I recieved, plus more, of a road with multiple names, including: The Road of Death, North Yungas Rd. and the Coroico Rd. It states that “Stremnaya” is an incorrect name for this rd in Bolivia. Sorry Caipiri, perhaps you will reconsider your labeling of others as “morons”. I searched Soa Bento de Sapucai. Very few fotos and none like the ones I believe we are discussing.
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I would love to land my private boeing 777 on that road
Thank you for the explanations. I was surprised with a pps file I’ve received stating that road was in Bolivia and mixing it to the actual road to tha Yungas in La Paz, Bolivia. Iknow most of Bolivian roads and was upset with that false inclusion.
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