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Sarah Zheng

A tourist attraction in eastern China has found a novel way to get people to slow down and enjoy the view.
The ancient Taierzhuang water town in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, has installed nearly a hundred “speed bumps” across a pedestrian walkway at its entrance, photographs shared on the People’s Daily’s social media account showed.
Each black-and-yellow speed bump is located just one small step away from the other and the features stretch several metres along the path.
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Taierzhuang is known as one of China’s most beautiful water towns.
The unusual sight sparked the interest of Chinese media outlets and social media users, who speculated about the reason behind the move.

In a tongue-in-cheek post on social media, the state broadcaster CCTV suggested that the path could be a “washboard road”. The succession of bumps resemble the ridges on a traditional washboard used for laundering clothes.
Internet users pointed out that as the road sloped downwards, the speed bumps could be meant as a makeshift staircase for pedestrians.
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“Who would drive on this road? It’s clearly to prevent people from slipping,” one commenter wrote.
Another said: “What’s wrong with this? Once it snows, you’ll see the use for this.”
But one user questioned this premise: “Why didn’t they just directly install stairs?”
The Taierzhuang ancient town is home to part of the Grand Canal - the world’s longest and oldest artificial watercourse - that stretches nearly 1,800km. It is a Unesco World Heritage site.
Taierzhuang was built during the Qin and Han dynasties (221BC-AD220). Although later destroyed in a major battle during the Sino-Japanese war, the town was rebuilt upon its ruins in 2008 and still features ancient architecture such as the Mount Tai Goddess Temple and the Wenchang Pavilion.


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Chinese tourist attraction installs speed bumps ... for pedestrians

The speed bumbs on the slight incline at Taierzhuang water town. Photo: Handout

=== NO ARCHIVE IMAGE === ATN. SPEEDBUMP01. Kindergarten offers head of lettuce as prize for athletic competition. UNDATED HANDOUT

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