Tourism boom

Surfaced roads have now reached all administrative villages in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture. Of 14,001 km of roads in the prefecture, 9,788 km are rural ones.

The new road network has not only helped local products find bigger markets, but it has also brought in more visitors and boosted tourism.

"A family suite has been reserved for you. Would you like any other services?" Chungla, 31, a homestay operator on the Hongyuan prairie recently asked a guest over the phone.

As the COVID-19 epidemic has been brought under effective control, Chungla has received more booking enquiries since May. "Our business in the first half of this year was badly affected by the epidemic," said Chungla, who uses one name.

Her family inns are adjacent to a highway traversing the vast grassland of Hongyuan county. After 2015, when the road was opened, she expanded her homestay business as the number of self-driving travelers increased rapidly.

"Originally, my parents ran a small stud farm with four horses and 10 yurts. I was 9 and often helped by leading the horses for guests," Chungla said.

"They paid 2 to 20 yuan for a horse ride and 20 to 50 yuan to spend a night in the yurt. There were no beds and they would sleep on the ground."

Chungla later took over the running of the business, but admits it didn't change much, with the exception of charging more for horse rides.

However, in 2015 the business took off thanks to the highway and an increase in visitor numbers. The existing facilities couldn't keep up with demand and Chungla decided to expand her facilities.

Seven wooden houses and five brick ones equipped with modern appliances were built to replace the yurts.

"Now we have standard rooms and family rooms with 37 beds in total. Pricing for each house also differs, varying from 130 to 400 yuan per night," she said.

Chungla, who runs the business with her younger brother, is aware of the unusual challenges the location presents for visitors due to the altitude. When they receive guests, they inform them where the humidifier is in the room, to use if the air is too dry, and how to use oxygen bottles or bags if they have altitude sickness.

Besides horse riding, more recreational activities have been added such as outdoor barbecues, campfire parties and special Tibetan meals. Visitors come from all over the country and even overseas.

"After 2015, I have made 300,000 yuan on average every year," Chungla said. "Earlier on, my family was the only one doing the homestay business. Now homestays have mushroomed thanks to the road."

Rolling on

Last year, 1.5 million trips were made to rural and pastoral areas in the prefecture, generating a healthy income of 7.78 billion yuan.

The prefecture is dominated by a plateau, mountains and gorges with an average altitude of over 3,000 meters. While posing major challenges to transportation routes, the terrain and climate have created natural topographical wonders as well as rare plant and animal life.

Of the prefecture's 900,000 residents, people of ethnic groups account for over 80 percent and Tibetan people nearly 60 percent of the total.

"Roads are of extreme importance to our people's lives and the development of rural and pastoral areas," said Li Bin, deputy director of the prefecture's transport bureau.

"In the past, after they traveled, their clothes were covered in dust and dirt on dry days and mud on rainy days."

Li said farm produce often got "stuck in the fields" due to a lack of transportation, making life difficult for villagers who relied on one source of income.

"With roads built almost to their doorsteps, they can get on the bus immediately after walking out of their homes," Li said. "Trucks drive directly to the fields and produce picked up in the morning in villages appears on city dinner tables that night."

By the end of last year, road surfacing work in 606 poverty-stricken villages in the prefecture had been completed, with a cumulative length of 4,568 km. As of February, all 13 counties and cities in the prefecture had been lifted out of poverty.

Despite this, efforts to improve road infrastructure in the prefecture continue. Investment in transport infrastructure has exceeded 13 billion yuan for two years in a row and is projected to reach 20 billion yuan this year.

By 2025, the total length of roads is expected to reach 15,000 km, with rural roads remaining the focus.