The Guoliang Tunnel is one of the most remarkable pieces of hand-built infrastructure in the world: 1.2 kilometres of road carved through solid rock by the 300-odd inhabitants of Guoliang village, who spent five years from 1972 drilling and chiselling their way through a Taihang cliff because no government road budget was forthcoming. The tunnel is barely wide enough for one car, with low clearance in places, and its most striking feature is the series of windows cut directly through the cliff face — "unaligned holes," as they are sometimes called — that open onto the canyon 300 metres below. Driving or walking through while sunlight slants in through these apertures is genuinely strange.
The village above the tunnel sits on a high terrace of the Taihang range with views down the canyon and across to the opposite cliffs. It is small — a few dozen stone-built houses, some converted into guesthouses — and gets a manageable amount of visitors compared to the mass-market scenic spots in the gorge below. The surrounding Wanxianshan Scenic Area (¥80 entry) includes the canyon, the village, and a network of paths along the cliff edges above the tunnel. The scenery here — sheer limestone walls, clear streams, and the abrupt transition from flat plain to mountain that characterises the Taihang's southern edge — is excellent.