Yanjin (Yanshan) – the narrowest city in the world with over 450,000 residents, resembling a scene from a movie or a simulation video game.
Yanjin is considered the narrowest city in the world
Located along the Nanxi River, amidst the steep mountains of Yunnan Province, China, Yanjin is recognized as the narrowest city in the world.
Viewed from above, it’s hard to believe that Yanjin is a long-standing settlement with a substantial population in real life. The city has about 450,000 inhabitants.
The narrow strip of land for habitation is squeezed between the Nanxi River and steep mountains on both sides, providing a home for hundreds of thousands of residents.
The city is situated on both banks of the Nanxi River.
This is what makes Yanjin unique. The area appears more like a scene from a fantasy film or a building simulation game than a modern city.
At its narrowest point, Yanjin is only 30 meters wide, while the widest part of the city is approximately 300 meters.
On each side, there is a main road, and although the city stretches for several kilometers along the river, there are not many bridges.
Due to the limited land area, real estate prices are high, leading to many apartments being built right on the riverbank, elevated on stilts to avoid flooding in case of rising waters.
The bridges across the river connect both banks.
Newcomers to Yanjin often feel overwhelmed standing between the towering cliffs, especially on rainy days when the river becomes muddy, rushing like the Yellow River, making the whole area appear desolate amidst the stormy weather.
A drone video of Yanjin that went viral on Chinese social media has sparked curiosity, prompting questions about why anyone would want to live in such a cramped city.
In reality, people have lived in this area for hundreds of years, and many locals do not consider living anywhere else. From Beijing, you can take over 7 hours by plane or more than 15 hours by train to reach Yanjin.
However, the inconvenient transportation is a reason limiting the city’s development. Being surrounded by mountains and having only a few main roads makes it quite challenging to access this narrowest city in the world.
Yanjin’s flood management model is a prime example of smart cities in China today
Urban flooding has emerged as a challenge amid modern urbanization and climate change. Therefore, China is in great need of a flood management model with several advantages, such as improving water environment, controlling urban flooding, reducing flow pollution, enhancing river and lake water quality, recycling rainwater resources, and replenishing groundwater…
This area has been inhabited for hundreds of years.
Yanjin’s flood management model is a model for designing an urban flood ecosystem that is planned and feasible to promote the development of smart cities, coastal, or riverside cities in China.
This model has been restructured and integrated with traditional rules and requirements for building floating cities. Specifically, the vertical design of urban roads in mountainous areas prioritizes the terrain conditions of the entire city. Aside from the main straight road of the city, the remaining roads are designed to fit the mountainous terrain.
The overall terrain is steep on both sides and flat in the middle, so the roads are designed vertically along the terrain without destroying the landscape and green vegetation. Wastewater treatment facilities and water storage sites are placed at the valley’s bottom, lower than the vertical height of the roads. Riverbanks are considered ecological embankments and green belts along the river.
