The Duong Valley road is the only means of access between China, Burma and Tibet.
00:00 Gongshan City
03:38 Duong Valley
12:25 Loggers and charcoal making
20:07 Ore hunter
31:14 This 85-year-old lady, the memory of the region
37:27 Squirrel bat hunting
43:08 In China lead is worth gold
A paved road for the first thirty kilometers which quickly becomes a very dangerous track. It is considered in China as the most dangerous of roads. Rockslides, difficult passages where any crossing of vehicles is impossible, mud, too narrow tunnel, nothing spares the drivers. The road requires extreme concentration. The cliffs are vertiginous. The slightest swerve can be fatal. And when the threat doesn't come from below, it can come from the walls of the road. On this track, there is no room for error. We take the road in an overloaded collective taxi. At the wheel, Tcheng. He's been using it once a week for 6 years. In the car, there is Fong who must reach his village lost in the mountains. Together, they will take more than 7 hours to travel less than a hundred kilometers. From the start of the trip, the troubles begin. The tunnel is too narrow. The passengers must leave the vehicle and widen the walls at the risk of everything collapsing... During this adventure, we come across loggers, children selling coal, Tibetan monks and Chinese adventurers in search of fortune... This road is perhaps the one that leads to Eldorado, that of the lead and tin mines.
Location: Tibet; Burma; China; Asia
Producer: Tony Comiti, France5
Author: Hugo Hayat - Jérémy Defalt