China starts building highway to its last county without paved road

NYINGCHI, Tibet, April 20 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday
began building a highway to the country's last county without paved road, Medog
in Tibet, to end the county's isolation with the outside world.

Costing 950 million yuan (139 million U.S. dollars),
the 117 km-highway will link Zhamog Township, the county seat of Bome, and Medog
in 2011 as scheduled, said Wong Mengyong, deputy Transportation Minister.

Photo taken on April 20, 2009 shows
the highway under construction in Medog county, southwest China's Tibet
Autonomous Region. The 117-km highway linking Zhamog Township and Medog
County started the construction on Monday. Medog is the country's last
roadless county. As the construction project is scheduled to end in 2011,
Medog is expected to get rid of its isolation from the outside
world.(Xinhua/Xu Hongchang)
Photo Gallery

Situated at Tibet's border with India and nestled
among snow-capped mountains, there are only mountain paths connecting villages
and towns. Tough terrains, complicated geological conditions, lack of funds and
poor technologies had doomed seven attempts to build a highway in the area since
the 1970s.

"We have no postal services, and little communication
with the outside world. Local residents mainly rely on horse and mules for
transportation," said Ngodrup Doje, Medog's county head. "Many people in the
county haven't seen vehicles."

Officials attend the ground-breaking
ceremony of the Medog highway at the foot of the Galung La
mountains,southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, onApril 20, 2009.
(Xinhua/Xu Hongchang)
Photo Gallery

Cering Wangchug, running a transportation business
from Bome to Medog, says he is "three-fourth jobless". His business runs bleakly
for only three months from July to October every year, through the narrow
winding passes between the two counties.

"It's a dream of generations that vehicles could
shuttle between the two counties freely throughout the year," said Cering
Wangchug.

Now the dream is coming true. As the first phase of
the project, more than 300 technical staff from an armed police unit have been
digging a 3.3-km tunnel since last November through the Galung La mountain,
about 4,000 meters above the sea level in Tibet's Nyingchi Prefecture.

The tunnel, which has been advanced for 500 meters
and is expected to be finished in two years, will withstand earthquakes
measuring up to a 6.5 magnitude, said Liu Genshui, who is in charge of the
tunnel project.

Photo taken on April 20, 2009 shows
a tunnel, part of the Medog highway, in Medog county, southwest China's
Tibet Autonomous Region.(Xinhua/Xu Hongchang)
Photo Gallery

"When it is completed, the progress for the rest of
the project will be smoothed," he said.

Tibet had no highways before 1951. Now, 97 percent of
its towns and 76 percent of its villages are connected by 51,000 kilometers of
highways, said Pelma Chiley, vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region
government.

The sparsely populated Medog, which means "secret lotus" in the Tibetan language, has about 10,000 residents, mostly in rural areas. It is the last of the country's 2,100 counties to be connected via a highway.

Highway construction to complete in
three years for China's last roadless
county

LHASA, Feb. 8
(Xinhua) -- China's last road-less county Medog, in Tibet, will be connected
with the outside when construction on a highway is completed in three years as
scheduled.

The 117-km highway, linking Zhamog Town, the county seat
of Bome, and Medog, will end the history that local people have to rely on
horses and mules for transportation in Medog, said Yao Bohua, head of the
highway planning and design institute under the region's communication
department.