China's 3,000-foot "Goddess escalator" takes 21 minutes to ride

Wushan County in Chongqing now has the world's longest outdoor escalator system: 3,000 feet of moving stairs — 21 escalators plus 8 elevators — climbing from the county town up to a scenic mountain area above it. The whole ride takes 21 minutes. Locals call it the "Goddess escalator." It opened February 17, 2026, and cost $23 million to build.

The engineering was handled by Schindler, the Swiss lift company that has been putting its equipment into some of the world's more implausible vertical projects. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the system links escalators and elevators in sequence, so riders transfer between segments as they ascend.

Wushan is in the Three Gorges region. The county town sits at the base; the scenic area, featuring the dramatic river gorge views the region is known for, sits several hundred feet higher. Before the escalator, getting there required a steep road or a long walk. Now you can just stand still for 21 minutes on a machine that moves you uphill at the pace of a brisk stroll.

At $23 million for 3,000 feet of covered outdoor moving staircase, the Goddess escalator cost about $7,600 per foot — which, for infrastructure in mountainous terrain, is probably a bargain.

Previously:

• Terrifyingly tiny elevator in China