4. Tianmen Mountain Road, Hunan Province, China
Located within the Tianmen Mountain National Park, in northwestern Hunan Province, China, the Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road (also called the Tianmen Winding Mountain Road) is 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) long from bottom to top. The highest point on the road is at 1,300 meters (4,265 feet) above sea level, and the lowest is 200 meters (656 feet). The construction of the road took 8 years, finishing in 2006.
To get there, you need to drive up Tongtian Avenue (Avenue Toward Heaven), which has 99 turns, symbolizing the palaces in Heaven. There are also 999 stairs, called Tianan Stairs (also known as Tianti, or the Celestial/Heaven Reaching Ladder) to climb before you reach the peak, where Heaven’s Gate – a natural rock arch that was believed to be the link between the gods and the mortal world – awaits. And there’s no platforms for stopping. The road spiraling upwards aggressively offers a view of its own winding tail, which gives off the impression a dragon ascending up the mountain.
