Entering The World’s Narrowest City – YouTube

A travel blogger has lifted the veil on the precarious life in what’s been labeled the world’s “narrowest city” where 450,000 inhabitants are said to be living on the edge of disaster.

Drew Binsky, a YouTube star boasting over 4.62 million subscribers and a trove of more than 1,000 videos, recently journeyed to Yanjin in China’s Yunnan Province—a metropolis compressed into a tight corridor of skyscrapers.

In his new video, ‘Entering The World’s Narrowest City’, Drew delves into the slender urban stretch trapped between mountains and hugging a river, with structures perilously close to cliff edges. Despite its allure, Drew cautions about the imminent perils: “The main road of Yanjin follows the river’s path, winding through the city with barely enough space for two lanes.”

He continues: “But somehow, 450,000 people live here and they face the constant threat of floods and earthquakes as their homes are sitting on the edge of disaster.” Intent on showcasing existence within such hazards, Drew remarks: “I came to Yanjin to document how people are living in this crazy environment despite the constant threat of catastrophe.”

Yanjin’s residents are squeezed into a space that narrows down to 30 meters and expands to a mere 300 meters at its widest point, clinging mostly to the riverbank with surprisingly scant bridges for connectivity, reports the Mirror.

The buildings stand on pillars, a strategy to counteract the land’s inherent instability and the swelling waters brought by severe floods.

A YouTuber @MegaProjects-su9sp has provided a fascinating take on the unique urban structure of one city, noting: “Every house is closely connected with almost no vacant space.”

They went on to reveal, “Moreover, you don’t have to worry about getting lost because the entire place has only one main road. It is truly a single-road city. The unique geographical environment gives Yanjin a distinctive charm, filling people with curiosity and a desire to explore.”

However, it was reported by Voice of America in 2009 that many homes in Yanjin were built dangerously close to hillsides, setting them up as ideal targets for earthquakes as per experts’ warning. Rewind further to the year 2006, and a 5.1 magnitude earthquake rattled Yanjin County within Zhaotong City, leading to around 6,000 houses collapsing as reported by China Daily.

This disaster resulted in 22 deaths and caused more than 100 injuries. Evidently, much of Yanjin’s housing had been constructed on ground at high risk for earthquakes.