New road links remote Tibet county to rest of the country_美文

New road links remote Tibet county to rest of the country

Lobsang Jamcan, chairman of the Tibet autonomous region government, announced the official opening of the road 30 km from the Medog county seat at 11 am on Thursday.

The road is open eight months a year and will stay open year-round if weather conditions permit.

The road maintenance crew includes two teams of workers with three loaders and two patrol cars to clear rocks and snow.

Strategists said the road brings benefits in "not just one single aspect".

"Similar to the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the road reaching China's border area can help consolidate our remote land and ensure stability," said Sun Hongnian, of the Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"But more important, it will improve the 10,000 residents' lives, mobility and economy."

Local officials said the county did not have its own post office or electronic appliance store until 2009. Some business people attracted by favorable investment policies in the county scrapped their plans because they found Medog did not have business administration and taxation bureaus in 2011.

Even today, the county has yet to build a bus station.

Before the road was open, it took porters over a week to carry goods into or out of Medog.

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.