Video | ‘Singing’ mountain road in Beijing hums patriotic tune as cars drive by
Tyres of vehicles moving at 35-40km/h across rumble strips make sound of Chinese song, Ode to the Motherland
A “musical road” has been built in a scenic spot of Beijing allowing motorists to hear a patriotic song while driving vehicles along a 300-metre-long section of a mountain road.
People have been told to drive at between 35km/h and 40 km/h so they can hear the tune, Ode to the Motherland, as they pass along the road located in the Qianling Mountain scenic area in the capital’s southern Fengtai district, Fengtai Bao, the newspaper of the district government reported.
The road’s designer said the musical sounds were created by tyres moving across densely packed small rumble strips positioned across the surface of the road.
The distance between the grooves and the depth of the grooves varied according to the melody of the song, the designer was quoted as saying in the report.
The rumble strips acted like the groove of a “record”, while the wheels of vehicles acted like a “stylus” on a record player, generating sounds as they passed by, the report said.
The idea also aimed to raise awareness about driving safety by encouraging motorists to maintain a constant speed so they could hear the song properly, China Central Television reported.
The stretch of road is in the final stages of tests and is set to open to the public next spring, the report said.
The road, which previously led to a coal mine, had been dilapidated for years.
Local political advisers proposed turning it into a musical road to help attract tourists.
However, it is not the first musical road on the mainland.
The country’s first musical road was built in Henan three years ago with another constructed in Shandong the following year.
Musical roads also exist in other countries, including Japan, South Korea, Denmark and California in the United States.
