A road in China’s Guizhou Province has what looks to be the best excuse I’ve ever seen to forget your wallet at home: a high-speed highway turnaround.
OK, maybe it’s not that high speed. Despite Chinese state media calling it a “high-speed turnaround,” the posted speed limit seems to be 40 kilometers per hour, or just under 25 mph. That’s not exactly fast, but it looks fun nonetheless.
In any case, I wouldn’t want to go too crazy on the turn back, seeing as how it’s built on a mountainous region of the country and therefore high off the ground. There’s just no safe way to run off-course if you got a little too reckless. That is, unless your ride is the Mach Five.
The turnaround is also a little tight, with one lane leading to the return which then becomes two lanes to share with fellow forgetful and/or lost drivers. I bet you could still have a lot of fun taking on the loop even if conditions dictate a slow, tight turn. I mean, just look at that view!
This a clever solution to the problem drivers in the province face given the terrain. What happens if you need to turn back on these mountain roads? Without something like this, motorists would otherwise have to travel a significant distance before finding some interchange to double back.
Drivers in Guizhou may have to contend with the difficulties of traveling over mountains and all the inconveniences that might entail, but they are apparently no strangers to some of the world’s most impressive road features. The province is also home to a handful of the highest bridges in the world, such as the Duge Bridge, also known as the Beipanjiang Bridge. It’s a give and take, I suppose.
There’s not a single view here in Texas like the one in Guizhou, but Texas tries with its stacked on- and off-ramps in cities like Houston, and with its truly high-speed driving, unlike that of Guizhou Province.
High-speed turn or not, though, I still very much want to go on that Chinese highway. That’s a bucket list drive there and back.