Zip-lines across rivers will be replaced with bridges in Tibet

Special: Focus on Tibet

LHASA, Dec. 5 (Chinese media) -- Villagers in remote areas in Tibet will no longer

have to traverse rivers using zip-lines, which are often used for entertainment

elsewhere, as the Tibet regional government is planning to replace the inclined

cables with bridges.

"Zip-lines should be used for tourism and adventure only," said Qiangba

Puncog, chairman of the Tibet regional government, at a regional government work

meeting on Tuesday.

The chairman ordered the authorities of finance, transport, planning and

poverty alleviation to draw a detailed plan as soon as possible, so as to

replace zip-lines with bridges in the coming one or two years.

There are 82 zip-lines in the remote mountainous areas of Tibet, according

to Wang Jian, an official with the region's poverty alleviation office. Twelve

of the zip-lines are made of cowhide, which are more dangerous that those made

of steel cable.

Propelled by gravity, users can traverse from the top to the bottom of an

inclined zip-line. Some school children in rural China use them to go to school

every day, while tourists use zip-lines for entertainment.

Qiangba Puncog said the bridges replacing zip-lines did not have to be big

ones that allow the passage of cars, "we can consider the construction of small

bridges that people and livestock can walk on."

The chairman said the most urgent thing was to replace those cowhide-made

zip-lines.

Infrastructure in Tibet has been developing over the past decades. Last

year, the Tibet regional government built 9,616 kilometers of highways in the

rural areas that enabled 848 villages to have access to the roads.

It also supplied electricity for about 180,000 people who had not

previously had access to power or suffered from shortages. Safe drinking water

was provided for 332,800 people.

In September, highway construction resumed for Medog, China's last roadless

county in Tibet with a population of merely 10,000. The first plan on a highway

to Medog was drawn in 1961, but had been suspended several times due to tough

geological conditions and poor technology.

In 1994, a highway was finished to reach Medog for the first time but parts

of it were soon destroyed by landslides.