Entering The World's Narrowest City

I've just entered yangin China a place known as the world's narrowest City you could almost shake hands with your neighbor from across the alley squeeze between two very steep mountains you can find high-rise buildings that are constructed in a single row along this polluted Brown River shopping malls restaurants and apartments are literally clinging onto the side of cliffs the main road of yanen follows the river's path winding through the city with barely enough space for two lanes but somehow a 100,000 people live here and they face the constant threat of floods and earthquakes as their

homes are sitting on the edge edge of disaster I came to yanin to document how people are living in this crazy environment despite the constant threat of catastrophe my mission is to make a local friend explore the area in depth and see if we can survive the most dangerous hike in all of China One slip and it's over oh I first heard about yanjun from a Chinese YouTuber named Yen good morning internet so I reached out and brought her along with me on this adventure what's your YouTube channel name uh little Chinese everywhere this is

the first time I'm seeing the city right now you have this brown River and these extremely vertical buildings that are just on the sides of it it's literally the most bizarre topography you could imagine to have a city leave it to China to invent something like this it's early morning and we are heading to the market to see what people are selling here more importantly I want to ask the locals what they think about living in a city with such a bizarre layout my first few steps on the street here and it's crazy these huge

trucks are just coming through the streets like they're just spitting of [Laughter] you what is it like to live here she has been here for over 10 years life has been good are there struggles of living here because everything is built vertically she said they got used to it because the city due to the GE graphic environment it has to be built this way the morning Market is kind of shoved onto the side of the road here there's no other space for it I got to say the fresh produce of fruits and vegetables look outstanding

here this shop here has a bunch of live animals what kind of fish is this goldfish what is that no frog if you buy from here they will process this for you and you can take it to a restaurant we are in the mountains in the countryside so they have a lot of fresh fruits hello how are you hello she here I'm trying the plum it's actually really tough texture it's like hard wo it's like the consistency of an apple sour in many ways this town reminds me of places in rural Vietnam the way that

the people dress the way that they act they kind of sit on the side of the road and spit sunflower seeds and small little chairs the way the Shops look it's really really really cool to travel here and it makes sense because this province yunan actually borders southeast Asia it's all connected in the same land so it makes total sense to me so we're now walking in the main part of yanin and I got to be honest it feels kind of like normal over here like this part of the city at least some of the

shops are really nice and modern but then of course you have like these traditional farming ladies on the side of the road what's it like to live here is that good do you ever get scared that there's going to be too many buildings and and they're going to collapse or that people just can't live here anymore because it's not sustainable no they're not worried at all have you ever seen like foreigners here before J she said no not here what's the best and the worst part about living in yanin the most inconvenient part is it's

badly connected to other parts of China and the good thing is the climate is very good the temperature is very enjoyable all year [Music] around I'm hanging out on the suspension bridge here by myself my friends are in the room and everyone's coming by to say hi it's a pretty amazing site super super nice people out here hi hello hello hello hello America America America America China hello hello how are you I'm fine hey we got an I'm fine that's good it's crazy how Brown the river is I would say everybody in this town lives

within a proximity of 500 ft to the river there's just highrise after highrise after highrise and then steep mountains in every direction on this side of the river the apartments look quite nice but right behind me on this side a little bit more Rough Around the Edges but a lot more character and everybody's super friendly they just come up to you and say hi literally everywhere American American there's a lot of stairs here we're just like okay let's go walk around first let's walk up 200 stairs it turns out to be hike yes out of

nowhere two policemen approach us and they don't look very happy I think it's because they see me flying my drone so I scramble to take it down and hide it I'm ready for them to confiscate it but then the opposite happened so the policeman came over to us and we thought they were going to tell us not the Drone but in fact he was just telling us where to shoot he's like you should go over there and shoot the mountain he said there over there there is a viewing [Music] platform you can feel how narrow

these streets are when you look up all the buildings are like caving in on you and the walkways are so narrow you could almost shake hands with your neighbor from across the alley it's that narrow nice one she just spit a huge lugie and then she said hi as if it's no big deal where are you from China China nice to meet you China what the kids are really curious and cute hello hi hi I'm going to buy everybody some cards what do you want pick one thank you enjoy so this street is more like

the commercial shopping street in town yeah the only one right yeah but when I walk here I don't feel like I'm in this narrow City I mean this is a narrow street but it feels like another big city in China kind of or do you feel difference no no I found it's just very much a regular Chinese City like the same shops everywhere and even though it's so rural here there's still like fancy jewelry shops all these fancy clothes stores just make me laugh like good quality stuff it's like a really modern city when you

think about the shopping here these supermarkets are packed with all kinds of colorful candies and things like I just want to try all of it we got an egg octopus leg if I got trapped in the supermarket for 3 years I think I'd be able to try a different snack every single day a nice card game going on with some elderly men behind me same thing I did as a kid growing up Drew you should tried this what is it some loal dessert it looks like jelly I love China look at this where else in

the world can you get this jiggly thing these textures are so interesting pretty jelly right yeah Cheers Cheers M that's not what I was expecting I thought it would be more like Jello-O but it's it just looks like Jello-O it's like a rice I cake smothered in brown sugar really sweet try this one you want to try this one mhm M the desserts in China are really cool because they're like watery and cold and it's never too sweet what is it like living here as a young person because I noticed many people are old ah

it feels like home because life is much less stressful compared with that in big cities here you can have a very chill relax life so how do you have a good time in yanin they like to play basketball for example and also snoker and then pup that's a PP oh I see it it literally says pup how often do you travel outside of they don't work from here they work somewhere else they come back for relaxation and be with the family is there anything that you don't like about yanin he said mostly they don't don't

cuz it FS home you know and one thing is that maybe they're too familiar with the place and they know everything so some sometimes it gets a little bit boring as we keep stumbling around the streets we pass by a small tea shop where a friendly group of men wave Us in to sit down how are you hi yeah he's inviting us for tea little did I know that this random act of kindness would change everything about how I see Yan what's the most interesting thing about living in Yan Jin drink tea the flow tea

to be honest this tea looks really like there's a lot of stuff in here it's not just like water and tea bag there's like fresh ingredients in America we don't really have a tea culture people just like if they drink coffee they don't like sit and enjoy it it's not like a relaxing thing these guys are really nice they just forced us to come sit with them and they're just giving us tea and just hanging out trying to understand what life is like here y people are very warm-hearted I can see that what kind of

things do you do to keep you happy here drink tea he said it's a small place so they drink tea sometime play cards together sometime take a walk that sounds like the most enjoyable life ever do most people work or they just hang out I said people work but now it's like off work time they are like they work on construction side look strong man this is actually one of the best tees I've had in a long time yeah in my opinion it seems to be stressful to live like so stacked on top of each

other and you don't really have much free space is it stressful to live here for any reasons from afar the houses are very compact but as long as you get used to it he's quite used to it so so he doesn't feel so stressful what about if it rains a lot and if it floods is that a problem uh only in like 1992 that was a big flood like every 60 years so like the houses near the river got flooded and then they just moved to a little bit higher area and wait until the the

flat uh that sounds really stressful he said it's very rare only every 6 60 years is this awesome guy that we just met for tea is now inviting us to go see his house and we're walking up all these stairs to get there okay let's go when you first saw me you were really friendly and you smiled and waved and you invited me for tea what did you think about seeing a a white person with red hair walking through the streets of yanin he said for them it's very common just to you know say hi

and yeah I appreciate that he said he's also happy fifth floor no elevator let's go old building so cool he said come here and take a seat it's really nice nice he asking you want to have some water yeah yeah sure it' be great it's actually a really really nice apartment it's clean it's big huge living room TV set up here pirate ship and a cat who's like what are you doing here the shower is just above the toilet which is in the ground it's all in one room wow that's okay it's okay tell them

I think it's cool you always can feel the culture when you get inside a house always thank you she's here so how much REM and bees does this cost a month if I were to rent it like 10K or year a year $10,000 a year $1,300 $1,300 for a whole year so $100 a month this place is sweet that's really affordable living is the river water like clean if you swiming it he said it's too dirty to swim it looks really Brown he said they swim in the small rivers not this big one what is

the significance of the river for the community of yanin they used to go fishing quite a lot in the but now there is a like a fishing band for 10 years for environmental reasons do you have brothers and sisters his parents has allog together seven kids he's a six you're the last generation to have brothers and sisters which means you can be an uncle because the people that I've been meeting such as your age they're all only Childs so they don't have siblings for me it's so hard to imagine like having one child I we

hear about it you know in the US the fact that you can't have more than one kid is really interesting to me he said for his generation it's a it's a shame they can only have one kid but uh now young people don't feel like having kids anymore that's what I kind of figured out do you think it's a problem if people aren't having babies anymore there's already 1.4 billion people here he said yes for the future Generations do you know what YouTube is no so basically in in the US we have this platform called

YouTube people like myself can create videos and they put it on YouTube and that's my career he said that's uh good he said there are some Chinese are also making TR videos on Tik Tok Chinese Tik Tok he will show you it's basically the same as the one we have it's just all Mandarin it's amazing that people all over the world are doing the same thing it's just in their language my dad does this too like people in the US they just do this my nephews in the Philippines all day they do the same thing

I really had a great time at O's house learning about his lifestyle he politely kicks us out because he has some errands to run but later today he invites me on an epic Cliff hike that most locals avoid because it's too dangerous I'm just having a moment here to myself and just appreciating this incredible place the happiness levels here are as high as you can find anywhere in the world and the craziest thing is is they don't have a lot of money they live in basic Apartments everything is pretty affordable they're very family oriented out

of this entire China Series this might be my favorite story so far and if you enjoy this video as well let me know in the comments down below I'd love to hear from you the is taking me to a famous restaurant here they have look at this come with me so that's very typical yaning stuff that's this uh deep fried potato and they also have sweet potato noodles which they are still preparing right now she said they made it themselves everything she's cooking behind me looks amazing I've never had sweet potato noodles before the tofu

looks fresh the sausage and it's all boiling in this massive pot it's about 2 and 1/2 ft tall as you can tell they take food very seriously in China basically you just take a cup and then you take out these massive Chopsticks and you grab what you want it's hard to use big ones first timer over here first timer don't worry sorry guys this is not working out really well trying my best this is the highest level of Chopstick yeah she's backing up okay cool and then all this you put it in all right it's

like Chipotle you got you go down the line and you get everything you want this looks so good she said that's not for this I'm so sorry white guys eating with my large Chopsticks all right the best thing about this bowl is that it's dollar and this is kind of our salad that we just got ourselves and she put a bunch of stuff on it sweet potato is so good what I love about the food here is it's really fresh MH people are obsessed with eating fresh food here for all the Chinese who migrated to

the US many of them have their own garden I can't explain how good this is so many flavors Spicy kangy Sweet this is the sweet potato noodles which I've never had before in my life look at that oh is this a regional thing the sweet potato noodles yes typal look at my skills I saw you do it so I'm just trying to they taste quite different than regular noodles they're a little bit like softer and they're really slimy but super tasty meow where you at bro okay we'll see you in like 30 minutes oh is

ready to take us on the Epic cliffwalk so we're going to quick finish our noodle soup before heading out he tells us to meet him back at the tea shop with his friends hello hey hey all right we just found our buddy he's here at the same shop drinking tea and I got a gift for him he's going to be really happy for you oh y it's a gift a gift the 30-minute drive into the wild begins and I have no idea what to expect we are starting the hike yes he's saying be careful I

actually don't really know where we're going Yen knows where we're going wow we're going up and up and up views are epic here you know there are some coughing wooden ones over there got a lot of stairs here we're moving way to heaven it's the first time I've turned around to look back absolutely epic backdrop come on Yen you got it you tired the only three words can communicate or hello okay and bye-bye oh it's amazing how they have this ancient staircase here that goes probably way back as Yen was telling me it's how the

Old Farmers and Merchants and Traders would bring goods from yunan Province to Sichuan Province cuz we're right here on the border of both so who are these guys uh they're living on the other side of the C so they have to pass it every day yes waa when there's a train like the horn is so loud the whole city can hear it all right so it's just me and O that's going to walk through hopefully we'll be all right I mean if if it's life or death and I need to communicate something it's not going

to happen here we go [Music] this is so freaking wild if you drop straight down it's about I don't know few thousand feet drop this reminds me of death Road in Bolivia if you're not trusting your balance could be screwed oh my God are you okay I prefer to stay on the ground she's like spider spider woman over there okay okay hello something I don't do enough when I travel is just sit here and take a moment to reflect on what I'm looking at what I'm doing and man this is the part that makes me

the most nervous right here it goes straight down oh my god get that pit in your stomach when I look up or down look at the two ladies just like casually walking across the CP oh she has a bird on her shoulder um is this your pet someone it's her baby what what's the name like little black sh What a what an epic place to meet her with a bird on her shoulder than this massive oh my God that could have killed me I could have just Fallen backwards like holy that scared the out of

me H yeah that could have been the end oh my God his name isong what's your name Oh My English name is Amanda that's my sister's name oh sister's name Amanda are you scared of this uh Road uh a little a little how often do you take this road every two days when there is a market isn't it ult to walk this no they they are very used to what about the time when the earthquake hit was it scary he said like from starting from here all those Mountain they are not affected by the earthquake

so they are fine all right guys well good luck out there byebye and they're actually using this road to get across to the other side after the hike we stumble upon a nice Village nearby and it's a whole different world from downtown yaning we can't end this video without sharing a meal with o Everything feels a lot newer than the other place and it's super quiet but they preserve this kind of like ancient feel of the buildings he said welcome to here oh thank you and wish you good health thank you he said made the

world peace peace that oh has taken us to his friend's restaurant here in this little town the food has just arrived it's been cooking in the kitchen for quite some time and there's a lot of food if there's one thing I learned about being in China they like to eat you just kind of pick whatever you want it's very [Music] communal oh my god I've never had tofu this good before really good extremely spicy cilantro oil tofu try this one this looks like a bacon mhm really rich flavor of pork soaked in this really tasty

juice basically like better cured bacon you're really lucky that you live here because every meal is so good like the people who are leing on this land is nurtured by the this land where I come from everybody orders one dish and nobody touches it like if somebody says can I have a bite it's they're like no bro that's mine it's totally [Music] different there's one takeaway from this story let it be that life is so peaceful and beautiful out here everyone seems to be really happy and the food is really freaking tasty man that's what

we often say on the Chinese table that is B so far I know that you're a chill guy I do but everybody's got stories to tell so I'm just curious it's like do you have anything crazy to share he lost his mom he was only eight he said after he finished his middle school he was working in a restaurant and got paid 5 PM per day and then he saved some money and then when he felt that he had enough he just packed his luggage and went [Music] out and he saved for like 300 400

is that just one month and then he spent all his money he went back to put me where he has a relative I'm touched by O's honesty in telling his story and I can't believe he backpacked all across China alone but in the end it is very clear to me why he chooses to stay in yaning the strong sense of community the blend of tradition and modernity and the beauty of these narrow mountains are unlike anywhere else I've been thank you thank you okay thank you thank you okay you know I've been a lot of

places in this world and when I saw pictures of yanin I was like I have to go there I have to check out what's happening here I was expecting it to be dangerous and for people not to be enjoying life so much because of the risks that flooding presents but honestly walking around this place everyone is super friendly it's just a normal Chinese City like everybody seems to be really happy and they're smiling at me in the streets and it's crazy like when you're walking in this city if you keep your head level it looks

like any other place in China you have to make sure sure to look up at the buildings and also look down at your feet and the Beautiful surroundings around you and then you realize that you are really in a special place if you enjoyed this video make sure to subscribe to see more Amazing Stories from every country in the world and I'll see you guys next week [Music]