China: Mission Impossible

Photograph by View Stock RF, age fotostock In 1972, after centuries of isolation, the villagers of Guoliang decided to forge their own route to the outside world.
Deep in the Taihang Mountains in northeastern China, they had long relied on a steep mountain trail sometimes referred to as a "heaven ladder." Then 12 local men hand-carved a rough recess through the mountain.
 The Guoliang Tunnel Road (officially known as the Precipice Long Corridor) is that marvel of human will. To drive through the corridor requires a similar level of resolve.
Tucked away in a remote corner of the country, west of Beijing, the passageway is hard to find. But those who have made the journey describe it as an exceptional sight.
Just 19 feet wide and 13 feet high, the twisting tunnel has rough, open "windows" peering out from the cliff's smooth rock face and down hundreds of feet to the gorge below. More at nationalgeographic.com