Back in 2018, Land Rover pulled off a big PR stunt in China by driving a then-new Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid up a bunch of stairs directly in front of a tourist attraction called “Heaven’s Gate,” a gigantic naturally occurring rock archway next to Tianmen Mountain in the Hunan Province.
Footage published by Land Rover made the 999-stair climb stunt look fairly difficult. Engineers even went as far as to build a section of test stairs that mimicked the real objective’s 45-degree angle to practice. And during the run, test driver Ho-Pin Tung fought to keep the SUV pointed straight, navigating the climb’s two flat portions, which come in short succession.
Land Rover was the first—and up until yesterday, the only—carmaker to attempt such a feat. Chinese automaker Chery tried to do the same thing with its Fulwin X3L extended-range electric SUV, but failed in spectacular fashion, damaging a piece of the “ancient” staircase in the process.
Why Would You Even Want To Do This?
Climbing up steep, uneven inclines is a tried-and-true method for automakers wanting to show off the capabilities of their off-road products. If you’ve ever been to an auto show, you’ve probably seen an outdoor section with one of those metal climbing structures designed to show off an SUV’s off-road chops. Here’s one at the Los Angeles Auto Show filmed back in 2016:
Land Rover’s stunt on the side of Tianmen Mountain was basically just an extension of this idea, on a far grander scale. Incorporating a well-known tourist attraction adds to the appeal, plus the scenery and perceived risk of it all attract a big audience. The feat was the grand finale for what Land Rover called the “Dragon Challenge,” which also had Tung race up the twisty, 99-turn road to get to the base of the mountain. Watch:
Likely wanting to generate some good press for itself, Chery attempted to pull off a similar stunt on Thursday with its X3L, an EREV that, perhaps coincidentally, looks a lot like the current Land Rover Defender. Except, things didn’t go as well as the company had hoped.
Chery’s Attempt Doesn’t Go As Planned
Video published across the internet from onlookers at the base of the mountain shows a yellow X3L attempting to climb the staircase. Both videos embedded here start after the first set of stairs is climbed, which suggests the vehicle was able to climb them without issue. It’s only when the car approaches the second set of stairs that things go sideways (literally).
From what I can tell, the Chery accelerates into the stairs and bottoms out, though it’s tough to tell if it’s the front end hitting the stairs or the underside. Either way, the car is able to ascend to near the next flat platform. Video shows a black piece of … something emerge from underneath the car, before the X3L begins to struggle.
You can hear the tires fighting for grip as the SUV begins to slide backwards. Despite the brake lights illuminating, the Chery continues to reverse, riding along a set of handrails before landing at the pedestal and barreling in, rear quarter panel first, into the stone guard rail, knocking a portion into the woods below.
What Went Wrong?
I could sit here all day and speculate what happened here. The all-wheel drive version of the X3L–presumably the version being used here—makes 422 horsepower from its electric motors, 16 more horses than that Range Rover. Official curb weight is a bit tougher to come by, but some sources suggest this thing weighs around 5,000 pounds—not light, but also not as heavy as the Range Rover. So theoretically, it shouldn’t have an issue getting itself up the stairs.
Well, according to Chery, it wasn’t the car’s fault or the driver’s fault. It was a safety rope attached to the car that somehow became detached. From Car News China:
The company stated that a preliminary investigation revealed the direct cause of the accident was the “unexpected detachment of a shackle from the safety rope’s anchor point of the test device.” This led to the safety rope entangling the right wheel, obstructing power output, and causing the vehicle to slide and collide with the railing. Chery confirmed that no personnel were injured, and no natural environment was damaged.
Chery acknowledged “insufficient estimation of potential risks and oversights in detailed control” during the planning and execution of the test, particularly in choosing a public scenic area for the activity. The company expressed deep regret for the damage caused to the Tianmen Mountain site and pledged to repair it and bear all compensation responsibilities fully.
Upon closer inspection, you can see a rope laid out on the staircase leading up to the car. How it would’ve helped in the case of a tip-over, I’m not so sure. In any case, I’m curious to see how Chery approaches this next time. That’s right—according to one outlet, the company is reportedly going to try again. From NFNews:
Despite the setback in this challenge, Chery Automobile has reportedly announced plans to launch another attempt on November 25th, according to insiders. Meanwhile, in response to the issues exposed, the technical team may implement a series of improvements: replacing tires with all-wheel-drive (AT) tires specifically designed for unpaved roads; upgrading the torque distribution algorithm of the intelligent electric four-wheel-drive system to improve the response speed of the rear wheel lock; and adding real-time vehicle pitch angle monitoring to maintain center of gravity stability through active suspension adjustments.
Honestly, I’d love to go see this stunt in person on the 25th. If only the flights to Zhangjiajie City didn’t take 27 hours and cost $1,600.
Top graphic image: CarNewsChina / YouTube
Clearly Chery did not read the fine print at the bottom of the screen in the Land Rover commercial: “Do Not Attempt”
Maybe Tycho can cover it on the 25th
What’s with G-wagen’s mismatched wheels?
Kinda crazy this was allowed actually.. Could be an ‘easier to ask forgiveness later than permission now’ kinda thing but I assume that’s very ill-advisable in China
Well, I guess they’re not going with the whole ‘tread lightly’ ethos of responsibel off-roading then. 🙁
Those stairs were built circa 870 – 1155 years ago.
These types of stupid PR stunts ought not to be allowed in such historical places.
You know, Brian, there are a lot of readers here in China that would be happy to be there in person to take your place… it’s much closer and cheaper from Beijing.
Yes but who backed the Rover down all those steps? Thats what’s really bending my brain.
I was wondering that myself. Wonder if it’s possible to helicopter lift it out?
My thought was Helicopter as well. Super clever how he reversed in the initial switchback stairs. Of course it’s also a chance to show off how easy it is to back the Rover
out of a dangerous desert wash, into a parking spot in front of the school.I liked the reversing up the hill too. That would have to feel super weird in the car!
Po would have never made it that far!
How does that rope provide safety in any way?!
I will tell you what happened. Harder tires.
I worked at Chery in Shanghai for 9 years, initially they relied on us expats to advise them on things that wouldn’t make them look stupid, Like naming cars “Jaecoo, or Omoda”.In recent years they still ask but they go ahead and do what they want anyway. I’m sure there is someone that told them before this stunt to try it on a smaller scale first to see if it works, but they are smarter (???) than that. In the end this is what’s going to kill Chinese brands.
Thanks for sharing! What a perspective, and a timeless story, too. Odysseus would have made it home a hell of a lot sooner and less violently were it not for his hubris.
I cannot get over the stupid brand names.
The only Chinese brand I like is Hongqi. It should’ve been written as “Hongchi” but whatever. They’re not afraid to be Chinese. Hongqi means Red Flag. And whether you tolerate the PRC’s communist roots or not, you must admit it adds character and identity.
Other Chinese brands though? Zeekr? Avatr? A bunch of names generated in a boardroom.
Ha, well now “red flag” is a well known metaphor for “revealing big problems” so even that one’s a poor choice for an American buyer.
“I cannot get over the stupid brand names”
Are they really any worse than the stuff Big Pharma comes up with?
Ask your mechanic if Dongfeng is right for you.
You need not ask your Cadillac dealer about Lyriq. You already know the answer you’re going to get whether its true or not.
The Japanese did it perfectly because they fully embraced their culture. It was either last names (e.g. Toyota, Suzuki) or playing with two or more words like Nissan or Mitsubishi, but they all sounded unapologetically Japanese.
I guess at first it was jarring but people get used to repeating the same names over and over again. Honda is now as western as any word can be, so are Toyota and Nissan.
The Chinese are trying too hard to play it cool and it’s terrible.
BYD isn’t bad. Except in French-speaking countries, where it sounds like “paunch” or “belly” or “stomach” (usually when said belly is on the larger side). It also means “flop” as in something unsuccessful. So maybe BYD isn’t that great either.
If Jaecoo and Omoda weren’t bad enough, they 1. Named a brand ‘iCar’ in the hear 2025 2. Renamed said brand to ‘iCaur’ for export markets to avoid trademark infringement. To be fair they cleverly designed the U to blend into the rest of the letters but it’s still a stupid name for a brand that sells cheap off-roady SUVs.
Chery seems to be uniquely bad at naming their brands for such a large Chinese company, especially considering that it was basically China’s only real export brand for 10 years until recently. Most other Chinese brands either have far less stupid sounding brand names or are too small to matter.
It doesn’t get any better in other areas. The names that get slapped onto things like toys like “conquer” for a 1/18 scale RC truggy that can’t conquer anything more than a smooth floor. To be fair, it’s still going strong after getting rammed into walls multiple times a day for a year. It might not live up to its name but at least it’ll keep on not living up to it’s name.
I was on the brand committee at Chery that came up with the name “EXEED” one of the last good ones they’ve had. Now they have an EV version that is called “LUXEED”…FML
Good thing I held your beer for you.
It is my opinion you should never do anything someone else is recording.
For example, ladders and cameras are a bad combination.
It’s like Schrödinger’s cat, everything is fine until you have a camera. .
I guess we should remember that, for all we know, matters get far worse far more often when there isn’t a camera present, but we’ll never know because… well, there was no camera present.
I wonder if they got approval from the preservation society to risk more damage
This is why I come here. I would love to see a story on how these guys can drive so well with what I can only assume are rather large brass balls.
Those are what brought this vehicle down.
Not only are they attempting something already done by another company, but it was done SEVEN years ago. It makes Chery’s attempt all the more sad, imo.
Thank you for including the Land Rover clip you referenced in the opening paragraphs.
Its only impressive if you get it right the first time.
Breaking things, fixing them, and then trying again repeatedly isn’t that much different from throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Throwing things at the Great Wall and seeing what sticks does require a certain gutsiness at this point though.
And very large things.
I guess that was there so if the vehicle got stuck on the stairs they could winch it down. 🙂
Something dodgy about the existence of this ‘safety rope’. Why didn’t the safety rope stop the car from hitting the fence wall?
I’m gonna keep it real with you chief-I didn’t even realize the Land Rover stunt actually happened and assumed it was CGI
Trying to stare down a challenge never works.
Anybody know if I can fit All Wheel Drive tires to a Civic? 🙂
Planning to recreate Why Did You Turn but on a grander scale?
OttosPhotos provided a link to a video that discusses the safety cable used under the Range Rover.
Here at 1:07, the video acknowledges that “Optional off-road tyres were used” in fine print:
https://youtu.be/D8l6cgzTP5M?si=WOH_zcFgynTt9itN&t=67
I would assume the rope would help with legal deniability, but maybe it could also be used on to straighten the vehicle if it was sliding down?
The Rover stunt also had a safety rope, which is probably what they used to guide it down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8l6cgzTP5M
Huh, so if the Chery system was supposed to work the same way it looks like it failed as well since it should have just stopped the car before it rolled back down into the railing.
I suppose it’s better that it failed early instead of nearly to the top where the risks were much higher.
Thank you! I watched a different video than they one in the article, and I was struggling to see what those two cables actually did. I couldn’t even see where they attached to the car, so I’m glad to learn how they functioned.
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Good find! It rounds out Brian’s post.
Land Rover, not Rover. Land Rover became a separate company from Rover in 1978.