Better roads relegate horse and buggy to local history
When approaching the Tangmey section of National Highway 318 in Bomi county in the east of the Tibet autonomous region, Phuntso, an experienced lorry driver, is habitually nervous and alert.
Phuntso has been transporting goods between Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, for decades.
He said his reaction comes from his earlier-day experiences, which tells him he is close to the “most dangerous highway section under heaven”.
Zigzagging in the deep valley of the Parlung Zangbo River, the highway section used to be an easy victim of frequent natural disasters. Media reports said that the occurrences of natural disasters, like landslides and avalanches could reach 300 a year.
A renovation project of the road began in 2012 and was completed in 2016. It included five tunnels to replace the former cliff-hanging road and two new bridges to cross the valleys.
As a result, the travel time on this new road has been shortened to 20 minutes from more than two hours previously. The tunnels and bridges make it possible for drivers to shun the former dangerous spots.
The Tangmey road renovation is only one case of Tibet’s rapid development of its transport system.
The newly added milestone transport facilities to Tibet in the past decade include the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway, the Lhasa-Nyingchi High-Speed Railway, the Lhasa-Nyingchi Expressway, and the new terminal building of Lhasa Gonggar International Airport.
According to Xu Wenqiang, chief of the Tibet Department of Transport, the autonomous region has invested about 340 billion yuan ($49.26 billion) in the construction of transport projects since June 2012.
Yuan Yong, a native of Shanxi province who has been working and living for about 20 years in the prefecture of Ngari, said he is among those who are sensitive to the region’s transport development.
“I return to my hometown in Shanxi every Spring Festival for a family reunion,” he said.
He recalled when he made his first return trip during the 2003 Spring Festival, the travel took him eight days.
The travel time was shortened with the operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in 2006 and further cut in 2010 with the beginning of flight services between Ngari and Lhasa in 2010.
“And now the travel from Ngari to Shanxi takes less than 10 hours,” Yuan said.
Statistics from the Tibet Department of Transport show the autonomous region is now home to five airports for civil aviation and is linked to 68 cities at home and abroad with 150 air routes.
Residents in Tibet said the improvement in transport facilities means more business and job opportunities, increasing revenues and improving livelihoods.
Champa is a resident in Metog in the southeast of Tibet, which was China’s last county to have access to road links.
Due to a lack of roads, Champa said people had to use horses and their own backs and shoulders to transport goods between Metog and the rest of Tibet as recently as a decade ago.
Champa used to be one of the laborers carrying goods between Metog and Nyingchi.
“A round trip between the two places took about a week,” Champa said.
The local government began attempts to build a road to link the outside world in the 1960s. It wasn’t until Oct 31, 2013, that Metog saw the operation of its first highway of 73 miles.
“The horse caravan trade has become history,” Champa said. “Many of my fellow porters and I are now doing transportation business with lorries, which means greater convenience, less labor and more revenue.”
He added that the children of himself and his neighbors are now offered more opportunities to get rich by working in different industries.
“One of my sons is operating an online store to sell local produce,” Champa said. “Many young people are doing e-commerce business, running family inns, or operating tea farms.”