Li Wenshi and her daughter Li Yuhua at home in Xiongdang village, Dulongjiang township, Gongshan county of Yunnan province, on Oct 21, 2012; the duo at home, on Feb 6. [Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
Remote isolated area transformed as it embraces a future of opportunities, report Li Yingqing and Wang Jing in Dulongjiang, Yunnan, and Chen Meiling.
Editor's note: The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China set out a blueprint for China's path to modernization, with the aim of guiding the development of all walks of life in the new era and contributing positively to global progress. Throughout the year, China Daily will run a series of picture stories that highlight important waypoints on this journey. In this first installment, we examine the dramatic change in fortunes of the Derung people in Yunnan province, brought about by a decade of dedication and development.
Over the last decade, Dulongjiang township, Gongshan county of Yunnan province, has seen drastic changes, which resulted in one of the most remote, closed and poorest areas in China embracing digital and modern life.
Home of one of the country's smallest ethnic groups, the Derung, Dulongjiang township used to be isolated by deep gorges and snowcapped mountains until 2014, when a tunnel provided access to the wider world.
For hundreds of years, Derung people lived a primitive life — sleeping in thatched homes, traversing rivers by rope crossing, climbing the mountains on handmade vine ladders. But now it has been transformed.
In October 2012, China Daily reporters visited the town to meet the residents.
The 79.6-kilometer mountain road from Gongshan county to the town had 794 bends. We departed at 8 am and arrived as the sun was setting.
In February this year, we revisited the area. This time, it took just two hours to drive there. Upon arrival, what we saw were brand-new dwellings surrounded by clear rivers. The shaky single-log bridges were replaced by sturdy modern structures.
Everybody has a mobile phone except for some of the elderly and children. E-commerce, express delivery and livestreaming are no longer something unusual. Students enjoy free education from kindergarten to senior middle school. With a permanent population of 5,000, the residents have 1,036 automobiles.
The photos taken in 2012 and this year aim to show how life has changed through the country's poverty alleviation and rural vitalization programs.
A view of Xiongdang village, Dulongjiang township, Gongshan county of Yunnan province, pictured on Oct 21, 2012.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
An aerial view of the whole village on Feb 6.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
A frontier guard crosses Dulong River on a shaky wood panel suspension bridge on Oct 20, 2012; local villagers walk on a big, concrete bridge, called the Bailai Gan'en Bridge, on Feb 8.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
Police officers from the local border police station take ID photos for villagers at Xiongdang village, on Oct 21, 2012.They arrived at the village after hours of riding horses carrying all the photography equipment; a villager has his ID photo taken at the township's police station on Feb 6.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
Kong Jihong, then a Grade 4 student in the township's primary-and-junior-middle-school, does exercises to music during a class interval, pictured on Oct 20, 2012; Kong, now a sophomore student at Dalian Minzu University, at his home in Kongmei village on Feb 7.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
Math teacher Wang Xiaotao teaches a class on Oct 20, 2012;Wang at home in Gongshan county on Feb 9.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
A man with a huge bag dangles on a wire as he crosses the Dulong River on Oct 18, 2012.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
The Kongdang Big Bridge pictured on Feb 9, which now spans the river and provides smooth transport links with the outside world.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
A car drives on a road full of stones on Oct 19,2012, before the construction of the Gaoligong Mountain Dulongjiang Highway Tunnel; a car passes through the highway tunnel on Feb 9. The tunnel was completed in late November 2013.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
Villager Li Zirong and his wife and daughter in front of their home at Dizhengdang village of the township on Oct 21, 2012;the trio in front of their own supermarket on Feb 6.[Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]
