Dr. Lothar von Falkenhausen
Distinguished Professor of Chinese Archaeology and Art History
UCLA

To this day, the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province, which separate the basin of the Yellow River from that of the Yangzi River, constitute a formidable geographical obstacle to communication on account of their almost unimaginably vertical cliffs. To facilitate inter-regional trade across the Qinling, cantilevered walkways (zhandao 棧道) were constructed since shortly after the middle of the first millennium BC. They were maintained more or less continuously throughout historical times, until the 20th century. Similar thoroughfares were also constructed in mountainous regions elsewhere in China. Recently their archaeological remains have become the subject of major survey projects. This paper presents some of what is currently known about these extraordinary feats of ancient Chinese engineering.