Which highways in China have the most beautiful scenery? Here is the list of "China's Most Beautiful Highways"!

Let the "most beautiful highway" become the wings of the landscape

In the national highway network,

Which roads can be called “the most beautiful roads in China”?

What are their identification criteria?

The list of “China’s Most Beautiful Highways” officially released by China National Geographic magazine on December 5 gave its own answer.

The list of the most beautiful highways announced by "National Geographic China" this time has selected a total of 30 "most beautiful highways", involving ten types of roads, namely the Hengduan Mountain Highway, Tianshan Mountain Highway, Loess Plateau Highway, Southern Karst Highway, Qinba Mountain Highway, Southeast Hilly Highway, Eastern Coastal Highway, Forest and Snow Highway, Oasis Desert Highway and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Highway. These ten types cover China's rich landforms and landscape types, and at the same time cover the entire range of roads from the border to the coast, from east-west to north-south.

Please view the picture in horizontal mode

Panlong Ancient Trail in Oasis Desert Area

Photography/Tao Hua

National Highway 214 in the Greater Cross-Island Area

Photography/Xie Gang

Duku Highway in Tianshan Mountain Area

Photography/Wang Ning

It is reported that these ten regional types were determined by the National Geographic China magazine based on the scope of the China Highway Natural Zoning. During the nearly six months of selection and online solicitation, dozens of experts and scholars selected more than 100 roads in the selected ten regions based on the highway selection scope and scoring standards, and combined with field investigations of the routes. Finally, 30 roads were selected to enter the list.

The roads that made the list,

It is not a highway spanning thousands of kilometers in the usual sense.

At the release ceremony of the "Most Beautiful Highways in China" list broadcast live on Bilibili on December 5, Li Shuanke, President and Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic China, said: "A highway spanning thousands of kilometers may pass through different landforms such as deserts, oases, mountain valleys or plains along the way, but it represents the concept of a scenic avenue. We cannot compare the different landscape attributes along the highway together, and the evaluation criteria for type highways formulated by experts compare several highways in the same area together. The wonderful thing about the highways selected this time is that they present the ultimate moments in their respective areas when passing through deserts, hills, valleys or grasslands."

National Highway 317 in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Photography/Li Xuan

Qinling Huangbaiyuan Highway in Qinba Mountain Area

Qiandao Lake Ring Road in the Southeast Hilly Area

Li Shuanke said that the significance of this list is not only to establish a highway aesthetic standard that can be traced back and verified, but also to allow readers to see the diverse beauty, differentiated beauty and ultimate beauty of China's highways through roads and scenery.

Li Shuanke delivered a speech

Regarding the "Discover the Most Beautiful Landscape" event held again after 16 years, Li Shuanke said that "National Geographic China" has always been committed to discovering beauty, recording beauty, spreading beauty, and experiencing beauty.

16 years ago, with the help of more than 20 academicians and hundreds of top experts in the field of physical geography research, "National Geographic China" selected 114 "Most Beautiful Places in China" from China's natural landscapes according to 17 landscape categories. This miracle has been popular for more than ten years, with more than 10 million copies sold and is still being reprinted.

With the development of China's economy, culture and ecological protection awareness, the landscapes that were originally selected as "China's Most Beautiful Places" are also facing new development opportunities. And "roads" are the wings leading to these most beautiful landscapes.

Snowy Forest Area

Karst Area Hena Expressway

Photography/Peng Huan

Zhongwei Highway in the Loess Plateau Region

Photography/Liu Yang

Hangzhou Bay Bridge in the Eastern Coastal Area

Photography/You Wenjun

Reporters learned from the live video release ceremony on December 5 that the selection and dissemination activities were launched in May 2021. During the selection period, "National Geographic China" sent a number of investigation and filming teams to the Great Hengduan, Northwest, Tianshan Mountains, Southern Karst and other regions for several investigations and filming. During this period, the famous geological expert Fan Xiao and the "strongest brain" Shui Ge Wang Yuheng, who was hired as the first batch of "Most Beautiful Road Discovery Ambassadors", young actor Huang Lu, and Ctrip's well-known kos Allen accompanied the team for many investigations and participated in the filming of the micro-documentary.

Screenshot of the documentary "Hengduan Wenshui"

Screenshot of the documentary "Finding a Way in the Sea of ​​Sand"

Screenshot of the documentary "Overlooking Tianshan"

Screenshot of the documentary "Linghai Tongtu"

At the sharing session that day, Shui Ge Wang Yuheng and the famous science popularizer, "Mr. Museum" Zhang Chenliang, shared with everyone the wonderful stories of exploring the most beautiful roads and shooting videos.

The symposium

The guests also watched several of the most beautiful road documentaries, including "Asking about the Water in Hengduan" and "Finding the Way in the Sea of ​​Sand", and discussed the landforms of the "Great Hengduan" and "Oasis Desert" areas based on their personal exploration experiences, which brought many surprises to the audience.

Guests watching the documentary together

The selection and dissemination of the "Most Beautiful Highways in China" is a scientific special investigation activity organized in conjunction with the Central Propaganda Department's major theme report on the "100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Party". It is approved by the Science Communication Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and jointly implemented by the editorial and expert resources of the National Geographic China magazine.