Detour #286: Water Over the Bridge on the Yongwu Highway, China
Photo CCTV/ YouTube
Every year the road to Yongwu vanishes beneath the rising waters of Poyang Lake, yet daring drivers still brave the waves to cross.
Picture the scene. You’re pottering along the X219 county road from Yongxiu towards Wucheng, an easy drive through acres of farmland. You head east and the landscape changes into a district of freshwater lakes, mountains looming in the distance. Ahead of you Poyang Lake – the largest in China – appears and with it the road abruptly disappears.
All you can see are a series of bollards poking through the water’s surface indicating the path ahead. You take a deep breath and push ahead, a bow wave forming as you make your way across the lake. For over three miles it’s more like swimming than driving.
This annual spectacle has led the Yongwu Highway to be known as “the most beautiful road under the water.” For a few days towards the end of May, as the rainy season starts the lake’s two halves, bisected by the road, glow subtly different shades of green. Then as the rain falls and the water level rises over the road they meld into one.
It’s passable in this way for only a short time before the entire road is swallowed by the lake and drivers have to take a lengthy detour to get to their destinations. In the dry season from September it’s a different story with the road skimming the surface of the lake, closer even than the likes of Florida’s Overseas Highway, as motorists follow the dry line across.
Safely back on terra firma the highway continues to wend its way through the countryside, through traditional villages and past ancient shrines and temples until it reaches Wucheng on the Xushui River and the end of the road.