amoy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2010
- Messages
- 5,982
- Likes
- 1,849
China Focus: Highway open to traffic for China's last roadless county - China.org.cn
Medog = Motuo
China Military Online English Edition
Medog = Motuo
A highway linking Medog, the last roadless county in China, with neighboring Bome county in Tibet formally opened to traffic on Thursday, ending the county's isolation from the outside world.
The 117-km highway, which cost 950 million yuan (155 million U.S. dollars), links Zhamog Township, the county seat of Bome, and Medog in Nyingchi Prefecture in southeastern Tibet.
The road will be accessible for 8 to 9 months per year, barring major natural disasters, said Ge Yutao, Communist Party chief of the Tibet regional transportation department.
Getting out of Medog used to be a dangerous journey that required people to climb over Galung La and Doxong La, two snow-capped mountains rising over 4,000 meters above sea level. The mountains were the site of frequent accidents, such as landslides and avalanches.
The opening of the road is a great relief for Gyaltsen, a 59-year-old retired official in Medog and a former representative of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.
He submitted several proposals on road construction in Medog during his ten years as an NPC deputy.
Gyaltsen almost missed hearing the premier's government work report in March 1992 due to the long and arduous journey from Medog to Beijing.
It took him 14 days to walk from Medog to Bome, another day to reach the regional capital of Lhasa by bus, and yet another day to go to Beijing by plane to attend the annual meeting.
Mountain paths connecting villages and towns were once the only travel routes in Medog, which is situated near Tibet's border with India and nestled among snow-capped mountains. Complicated geological conditions and frequent natural disasters had thwarted seven previous attempts to build a highway in the area since the 1960s.
An adobe road dug along cliffs was built in 1994, but was only accessible between July and September. Frequent fatal traffic accidents have occurred on the poorly-built roads.
The building of the new road was approved by the State Council, China's cabinet, in 2008. Work officially began in April 2009.
The lack of modern transportation infrastructure has isolated Medog, dubbed the "secret lotus," from the outside world and restricted its development, said Ngodrup Dorje, former head of the county government.
Foot travel and horses have long been the only transportation method for goods in Medog, which has a population of 12,000, and locals have had to pay inflated prices.
Before the road opened to traffic in Medog, a half kilogram of cucumber or green pepper sold for as much as 25 yuan, five times the price in Lhasa. A can of beer sold for 10 yuan, more than twice the price of a can in Lhasa.
The isolation has also hampered medical care in the county, as the mountains are covered in snow for more than half the year and medicine could not be brought in from outside.
China Military Online English Edition
　CHENGDU, September 11 (ChinaMil) -- A motorcade regiment under the Sichuan-Tibet Military Service Station Department left for Motuo county in the southeastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region on September 10, 2013.
This is the first time for the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) to dispatch motorcades for delivering materials to Motuo county.
Motuo county, hailed as the "isolated island on plateau", was the only county in China which could not be reached by car. In the past, supplies for the military troops stationed in Motuo relied on horsebacks and occasional helilifts. In October 2012, the highway connecting Zhamu town of Bomi county and Motuo county was officially put into use, greatly facilitating transport to Motuo.
"It used to take the 'hinny fleet' more than two months to provide enough staple and non-staple food of a year for the stationed officers and men in Motuo. Now it takes only one trip of the motorcade to supply enough materials the troops need for a whole winter," said Pang Kuo, director of the Sichuan-Tibet Military Service Station Department.
