Chongqing — A thousand-year-old mountain road, once used to rush fresh lychees to a Tang dynasty emperor's favorite concubine, is being revived as a cross-provincial cultural heritage project advancing toward UNESCO World Heritage status.
Sculptures related to the Lychee Road at Lipu Chunfeng Park in Fuling. (Photo/Luo Yun)
The Lychee Road, known historically as the Yangba Road, is a key section of the ancient Shu Road system, a network of mountain passages connecting the eastern Sichuan Basin with the Guanzhong Plain. During the Tang dynasty's Tianbao era (742–756 CE), the route delivered fresh lychees from Fuling in present-day Chongqing to Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an), the imperial capital. Historical records note the journey took just three days, with the lychees arriving still fresh.
The road splits into two branches: a western overland route running from Fuling through Changshou, Dianjiang and Liangping in Chongqing, then Dazhou and Wanyuan in Sichuan, entering Xixiang in Shaanxi before connecting to the Ziwu Road; and an eastern route that follows the Yangtze River waterway through Fengdu and Shizhu in Chongqing, joins the overland route at Wanzhou, and continues through Kaizhou in Chongqing and Dazhou and Wanyuan in Sichuan before reaching Xixiang.
Huayan Ancient Road in Wanzhou. (Photo/Chongqing Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
Heritage milestones
On August 14, 2026, 19 courts from Chongqing, Sichuan and Shaanxi marked the second anniversary of signing a cross-regional judicial protection agreement for the Lychee Road's cultural heritage. The agreement established mechanisms for joint legal protection, talent development, expert sharing and coordinated branding across the three jurisdictions.
A prominent judicial protection sign for the Chongqing-Sichuan-Shaanxi cooperation stands at Lipu Chunfeng Park in Fuling. (Photo/Luo Yun)
The heritage push has achieved two major milestones: In late 2024, the "Shu Road (Lychee Road)" was added to the National Cultural Heritage Administration's China World Heritage Tentative List. In early 2025, the trans-provincial linear heritage site "Shu Road (Sichuan-Shaanxi-Gansu-Chongqing)" was included in the first batch of the National Major Archaeological Sites List, one of only 36 sites nationwide. The Shu Road has been on UNESCO's Tentative List since 2015.
Archaeological survey
In March 2024, the Shu Road (Lychee Road) Archaeological Special Survey was launched, led by the Chongqing Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology with collaboration from cultural heritage institutions in Sichuan and Shaanxi. It was the first cross-provincial joint archaeological effort under the "Archaeology China · Shu Road Research" major project.
The survey employed a new model of "cross-provincial collaboration plus technology assistance." Drone-mounted LiDAR penetrated vegetation to generate high-resolution 3D terrain models, while mobile smart terminals provided centimeter-level positioning along the 576-kilometer main route. Digital rubbing techniques preserved four inscriptions from the Qing dynasty to the modern era.
Yong'an Bridge on the Lychee Road, located in Yong'an Village, Hekou Town, Wanyuan City, Sichuan Province. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
The survey covered 576 kilometers of the main route and approximately 154 kilometers of branch lines. Results documented 214 sections of the main ancient road and 94 branch sections, and logged 349 immovable cultural heritage sites along the route, including eight national-level protected sites, of which 212 were newly discovered. Key archaeological finds include the Wenshan County site in Changshou, the Xianba site in Kaizhou, and the Datong Temple site in Dianjiang. The survey also documented traditional dwellings, villages and intangible cultural heritage along the route.
Rural revitalization through hiking
Local governments are now activating the ancient road for tourism and rural development. In May 2026, townships in Chongqing's Kaizhou District and Kaijiang County in Sichuan jointly hosted a hiking festival along the Lychee Road, attracting nearly 500 enthusiasts from four provinces. The event connected medicinal cuisine experiences, pear orchards, hot springs and intangible cultural heritage such as bamboo weaving, wood carving, and traditional drumming and dragon dances.
The ancient road within the Wushe of Yangguan Village, Sanhuikou Township, Kaizhou District, still serves as a functional passageway. (Photo/Luo Yun)
In Xuanhan County, Sichuan, about 15 kilometers of the Lychee Road's flagstone surface remain intact and are linked to local attractions, including stone forests, Red Army historical sites, and cliff carvings. In Wanyuan City, Sichuan, the road connects Tang dynasty cliff carvings, Red Army stone inscriptions and the earliest known Chinese stone inscription on tea cultivation, turning the mountainous border area into a destination for hikers and independent travelers. In Zhenba County, Shaanxi, mountain songs once sung by porters along the road are now listed as national-level intangible cultural heritage.
The path forward
Scholars and officials emphasize that cross-provincial coordination is essential for the nomination's success. Li Yongxian, a special researcher with the Sichuan Provincial Government's Institute of Culture and History and vice president of the Sichuan Shu Road Research Association, called for strengthened comparative international research to establish the Lychee Road's distinctive position within global transport heritage, and for building a diversified international communication narrative that presents the road as a pre-industrial "logistics civilization" and an embodiment of "mountain transport ingenuity."
Stone bridge deck at Tongyan Creek, Baisheng Town, Fuling District. (Photo/Luo Yun)
Xiang Pengcheng, a professor at Chongqing University, proposed a framework of "government facilitation, expert guidance and enterprise participation," with systematic integration of cultural tourism and industrial development along the route to attract private investment.
Zhou Feng, director of the Fuling District Local History Research Office, emphasized the importance of engaging younger audiences through short videos, digital exhibitions, VR immersive tours and other formats, transforming them from bystanders into active disseminators and guardians of history.
"The Lychee Road, the only route in the Shu Road system named after a plant, stretches across more than ten counties and districts in Chongqing, Sichuan and Shaanxi," Li said. "It serves as a vital economic and cultural corridor linking the Yangtze and Yellow River civilizations."