Hiking is often a great way to go out and be one with nature. China is completely flipping that on its head after the country installed giant escalators so tourists could easily access the best views.
Lazy tourists visiting China can now rejoice after some scenic mountain spots in the country’s Zhejiang Province installed giant escalators hundreds of meters long to reach the best view spots. The decision was made to help tourists gain access to the best views with little to no effort. Sounds about right.
Scenic spots that once took hours to reach and were only accessible to a certain group of people are now available to anyone willing to ride one of the giant escalators that reach the best views in a matter of minutes.
Tanyu Mountain is one of the locations where an escalator was installed. While the area has an altitude of just over 1000 feet, due to the precarious relief, tourists have to walk three mountains around the mountain in order to reach the summit. This made the area inaccessible to the elderly and young children.
“The original purpose for us to build this elevator is to solve the traffic problem in climbing the mountain,” a worker who helped install the giant escalator said. “In the beginning, we considered building a cableway. However, given cableway’s limited transportation capability and high-security risk, the escalator is relatively safer and has a high transportation capability, which can satiety the needs of the scenic area.”
While the mountain escalators make sense to help increase accessibility, some hiking enthusiasts aren’t as satisfied with the results. Even so, the concept of “no-pain mountain climbing” also has its supporters. “I haven’t walked a single step to scale most of the mountain, and I haven’t missed any scenic spots,” one tourist said.
Source: https://youtu.be/rDmPo47YVbc