Up on a soaring escarpment of the magnificent Taihang Mountain Range, 1600m above sea level, stands a well-hidden village, Guoliang. Deep in the mountain, survival requires a willpower as strong as steel. The two passages on the escarpment have brought contrasting pictures to two generations of villagers.
Guoliang Village is located at 55km northwest of Huixian, Xinxiang city, Henan. Towards the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, people were much exploited by landlords and bureaucrats. Their life was hard. Guoliang from Taihang decided to train his troops on the nestled cliff top and started an uprising. To commemorate him, the later generations named the village after him. Without abundant resources, villagers made everything with the stone bars from Taihang, such as stone bridges, stone houses, stone tables and stone beds. The "stone village" carries the beauty of ruggedness.
Villagers in the past went up and down the hill via the Sky Ladder. All daily necessities, from seasonings to livestock, were brought up the hill through this sole passage. The Sky Ladder was built in the Ming Dynasty and was expanded during the Qing's Daoguang Era. The zigzag road was carved directly on the side of the cliff. The narrowest bit is only 0.4m wide. Anyone falling off the road would be buried in the mountain. Life up the hill was difficult. Even going to school, seeing a doctor or marrying could pose much problem. Young people began to leave the village.
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