Talk about a (bad) plan (expectedly) backfire! Villagers from China’s Shaanxi Province thought they could get more money from the government and, in so doing, they created what has been dubbed the world’s most well-lit road.
Though it stretches only over 3km (1.86 miles), it has over 1,000 light poles, most of them estimated at about $1,000 apiece. The irony is that no car ever passes on this deserted road, as it serves to connect 2 villages and those drivers that do travel on it report the extra light is more of a nuisance if anything else.
As for how this came to happen, Oddiverse cites HSW.cn and says that it was all down to announced plans that the stretch of land would be requisitioned by the state. Villagers tried and found a way to raise the financial value of the land by installing extra light poles.
“The street lights started popping up along the 3km road linking the village of Taojia to nearby farms and vineyards in 2016, when it was announced that the land it traverses would be requisitioned by the local government for the expanding Xi’an International Trade & Logistics Park,” the publication says. “In such cases, people’s properties are usually demolished and they receive compensation from the state, so people started raising money for street lights so they could demand a higher compensation.”
The plan backfired. Villagers were informed that compensation for the land would not include the light poles, which had been installed illegally. They were also urged by authorities to take them down themselves, or bulldozers will be sent in to take care of the job and they would also be facing penalties.
And thus ends the short but glorious story of the world’s most ridiculous but bright (but oh-so-ridiculous) road ever.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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