A 3km stretch of narrow road in the village of Taojia, China’s Shaanxi Province, has been dubbed the world’s most well-lit road, with over 1,000 light posts lining it on both sides.

Street lights are usually installed 30 to 50 meters apart from each other, but in Taojia, they can be as close as 3 meters from each other, on both sides of the narrow road. Instead of making life easier for the drivers during the night, the large number of street lights have become a nuisance for them, as they have to be extra careful not to crash into one. And it’s not like the village road is thick with traffic anyway. In fact, a team of reporters recently visited the village to investigate this famous road and reported that no cars passed through during their hour-long stay. So why the absurd number of street lights? Well, apparently, the answer is “money”.

According to news reports in Chinese media, street lights started popping up along the 3km road linking the village of Taojia to nearby farms and vineyards in 2016, when it was announced that the land it traverses would be requisitioned by the local government for the expanding Xi’an International Trade & Logistics Park. In such cases, people’s properties are usually demolished and they receive compensation from the state, so people started raising money for street lights so they could demand a higher compensation.

HSW News reports that according to data provided by the Taojia village committee, in 2018 there were over 1,000 street lights in place on both sides of the now famous 3km road, each priced at around $1,000. However, over half of them don’t even work, which is considered further proof that the farmers were only trying to rip off the government.

Unfortunately for the people hoping to cash out on their brilliant investment, government authorities issued a statement to Chinese media outlets informing them that the street lights are not included in the compensation plan. In fact, they add that village officials were repeatedly instructed to inform locals about this, but that didn’t stop people from putting up more metal poles.

The people who installed the 1,000+ street lights had until April 5th to dismantle them themselves, or risk seeing them bulldozed without receiving any compensation.

 

Sources from the local government have acknowledged that better inspection and supervision are required to prevent such problems from arising in the future.