* Stretching 715 kilometers, the Yunnan-Xizang Highway, a vital trunk road in China’s southwestern border regions, opened to traffic 50 years ago.
* More than just a traffic route, the upgraded Yunnan-Xizang Highway weaves together world-famous landscapes and millennia-old ethnic culture.
* Over five decades, this multi-functional strategic corridor has not only greatly improved transport and logistics, but has also boosted ethnic integration and fueled green eco-tourism and highland industries.
Fifty years ago on this day, the Yunnan-Xizang Highway, a vital trunk road in China’s southwestern border regions, was fully completed and opened to traffic.
Stretching 715 kilometers from Xiaguan County in Yunnan Province to Mangkam County in Xizang Autonomous Region, the route crosses the Jinsha and Lancang rivers, traverses the rugged and geologically complex Hengduan Mountains, and climbs over snow-capped passes. Connecting to the southern section of the Sichuan-Xizang Highway to Lhasa, it has forged a crucial land artery linking Yunnan and Xizang, ending the extreme geographical isolation of China’s frontier southwest.
Half a century on, the once primitive lifeline built by manual labor has evolved into a modern alpine highway. More than just a traffic route, the upgraded Yunnan-Xizang Highway weaves together world-famous landscapes and millennia-old ethnic culture, fueling cultural tourism along the route. It has grown into a world-class tourism corridor that powers coordinated regional development and common prosperity for people of various ethnic groups.
PERILOUS CONSTRUCTION
Back in the 1970s, building the Yunnan-Xizang Highway was an extremely arduous engineering endeavor. Constrained by harsh, high-altitude cold, complex fractured geology, scarce supplies and lack of large-scale machinery, generations of road builders carved the road out of sheer cliffs with hammers and pickaxes.
Wu Junsheng, an 89-year-old retired maintenance worker, is a witness to those extraordinary years. “We survived on dried corn seeds, boiled and shared among workers. We even stored leftover seeds in our pockets to chew on while working.”
All excavation was carried out by manual labor. Workers lived in cramped tents on steep slopes, enduring freezing temperatures and extremely harsh living conditions.
When the highway opened to traffic in 1976, Wu was overwhelmed with joy.
The Yunnan-Xizang Highway has undergone three systematic upgrades over five decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was a temporary mountain road with merely 6-meter-wide gravel surfaces. Without standardized drainage and protection systems, it barely met basic seasonal passage. From the 1990s to 2010, the route was paved with asphalt and upgraded to a mountain highway with formal maintenance standards. Since 2010, the completion of secondary highway on certain sections and three tunnels crossing the snow mountains has eliminated the bottleneck of high-altitude blizzard-prone passes, promoting the whole route to a modern alpine highway.
These upgrades have effectively addressed longstanding challenges such as mudslides, permafrost damage, and heavy snow blockages, laying a solid foundation for the rapid growth of tourism along the route and for the economic development in the region.
“From dirt roads to asphalt roads, people no longer suffer from tough travels,” Wu said. “The changes over the past 50 years are beyond imagination.”
BOOMING NEW BUSINESSES
Better roads boost thriving industries. With continuously improved transportation, the once remote and isolated border areas have become a world-renowned destination for tourists.
A diverse ecosystem of boutique homestays, snow-mountain viewing cafés, outdoor camping and rural cultural experiences has flourished along the Yunnan-Xizang Highway, turning a simple traffic passage into a comprehensive immersive tourism experience corridor.
Lin Huangjia is a homestay operator from Chaoshan, south China’s Guangdong Province. Over the past four years, he has run businesses in Lijiang, Yunnan, where he has witnessed how road upgrades have transformed local industries.
“The shortened travel time between Lijiang and Shangri-la has brought a sharp increase in self-driving tourists. Our off-season customer flow has stabilized, lifting the overall occupancy rate by nearly 30 percent,” Lin said, adding that logistics efficiency has also been greatly improved along the route.
The most iconic roadside scenery, the snow-capped Yulong Mountain’s golden sunrise glow, has become a viral online check-in spot, drawing crowds of tourists inspired by social media posts.
Yi Yi from east China’s Fujian Province launched her roadside coffee business in Lijiang four years ago. Having sold over 50,000 cups of coffee along the route, she said the highway’s accessibility has boosted her business confidence.
“The Yunnan-Xizang Highway is a top self-driving route with steady and targeted passenger flow. Mobile coffee perfectly matches young travelers’ demand for outdoor slow travel,” she explained.
Su Na, president of the homestay association of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, has witnessed the corridor’s dramatic changes over the years of local entrepreneurship.
“When I first came here in 2012, there were only two youth hostels in the ancient town of Shangri-la. Today, there are more than 980 mid-to-high-end boutique homestays,” she said.
She has upgraded her homestay with plateau-friendly facilities and launched a lakeside café featuring highland barley and ghee lattes, turning local ethnic traits into popular tourism products.
“The highway changed this snowland and fulfilled my career. I have grown from a passing tourist to a guardian of these mountains and lakes,” she said.
The thriving tourism economy has revitalized ancient rural heritage and enabled local residents to share the benefits of development. Gendun Chom, a local villager living by the Lancang River, inherited the ancient salt-making craft passed down through generations.
Before the highway upgrade, local salt products could only be carried out by people and horses, which meant sales were extremely limited. Now, with a steady stream of tourists, her traditional craft has become a thriving and profitable business. She offers free parking and an introduction of ancient salt-making culture to tourists, and serves local signature noodles. Cultural tourism has become her family’s primary source of income, injecting new vitality into centuries-old border folk customs.
The improved transportation has also attracted cross-regional entrepreneurs to settle in remote mountain villages. Shi Qian, founder of a winery brand, settled in the Hachong Village in 2019. The once hollowed-out village has now gathered winemakers, designers and cultural creators.
“Previously, travelers only stopped briefly for refueling and meals. Now more people choose to stay and experience local life,” she said. By renting vineyards from villagers, employing villagers and selling local agricultural products, she has built deep bonds with the community. Her new winery, Tibetan-style homestay and featured catering projects are further boosting rural integrated development.
GLOBAL RECOGNITION
The Yunnan-Xizang Highway has become an important window for the world to see China’s infrastructure strength, border development achievements, and the charm of ethnic cultural integration. Its stunning natural scenery, complete supporting facilities and inclusive ethnic culture have won wide recognition from international travelers.
Lim Mee Ling, a tourist from Malaysia who traveled many famous self-driving routes in Central and Eastern Europe, Japan and the Republic of Korea, was really impressed by the route’s modern construction and comprehensive services.
“Few mountain roads are as well-built and safely equipped as this one. China’s transportation infrastructure is extremely advanced and traveler-friendly,” she commented.
She was also moved by the rich diversity of local ethnic cultures and expressed admiration for China’s progress in developing its border regions, especially after learning that the highway had only opened to traffic 50 years ago.
Scott Moreau, an American who has settled in Lijiang since 2013, is a long-term observer of the highway’s evolution. He recalled the hardships of traveling on the old rugged road. Now the modern, flat and wide highway shortens the trip to Shangri-la to just two hours.
“China is absolutely the world’s best at mountain road construction,” he said. “I hope to drive the full Yunnan-Xizang route in the future to explore more stunning scenery and unique ethnic customs.”
Zhao Fei, an associate research fellow at the development research center under the Yunnan provincial government, said the Yunnan-Xizang Highway’s evolution epitomizes China’s border infrastructure transformation. Over five decades, this multi-functional strategic corridor has not only greatly improved transport and logistics, but has also boosted ethnic integration and fueled green eco-tourism and highland industries.
“It embodies China’s people-centered development vision, supports shared ethnic prosperity on the southwest border, and serves as a replicable model for plateau high-quality growth,” Zhao said.
Reference Link:- https://english.news.cn/20260706/8b038a61e11443e285ca7056025f701d/c.html