KUNMING－More than half a million people living on the southwestern Chinese border have thrown off the shackles of poverty, their ancestors having long been isolated from the rest of the world.

The Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province sits in the Hengduan Mountains. The folded ranges, dubbed the "wrinkles of the Earth", were shaped by the most intense tectonic plate movements on the planet.

The canyon area of the Nujiang River originating from the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is one of China's poorest regions, home to those who make humble livings by farming the land with limited acreage. But now, it has been transformed thanks to the nationwide poverty relief campaign.

Building lifelines

He Xiaoyong, 41, is a member of the Derung ethnic group, which has a small population of about 7,000,60 percent of which lives in the Dulongjiang township of Gongshan county.

In 1964, the local government opened a horse track across the neighboring Gaoligong Mountain, on which horse caravans carried food, salt and drugs to the secluded locality before the village was snowbound each year.

"It took us 12 days to go back and forth from our village to the county seat. It was difficult. We risked our lives during every trip because accidents like landslides, falling rocks or avalanches could occur at any time," explains He.

In 1999, a simple road was built in Dulongjiang, and it was the first time that most Derung people had seen an automobile. He sold his horses and purchased a tractor with his savings, as horse caravans were no longer needed.

In 2014, a 6.68 kilometer tunnel was dug through the mountain to allow year-round traffic.

The road became a lifeline, and it revealed the long-hidden village to the world. He and his compatriots grasped the opportunity the road had created for them and opened homestays for tourists.

While the lack of transport infrastructure had constrained the development of the Dulongjiang township, many more residents in the Nujiang prefecture were also grappling with other difficulties－a harsh environment, dilapidated housing and poor infrastructure.

With the prefecture's poverty relief efforts, more than 100,000 impoverished people were moved from deep in the mountains to urban areas, thus gaining access to better medical care, education, and living conditions.

New roads and new homes have paved the way for people in Nujiang to chase bolder dreams.

In late 2019, a scenic road was opened to traffic along the Nujiang River, running for 288 km and linking most townships, relocation sites and tourist attractions in Nujiang.

The thoroughfare runs all the way to Xizang autonomous region, and the panoramic vistas along the road take tourists on a most impressive journey.

Better lives

Pu Luheng's family has grown corn for generations, but two years ago, he chose to plant Amomum tsao-ko, a ginger-like Chinese herb that grows at high altitudes and is used as a seasoning spice.

Pu, from Yaping village in Fugong county, remembers that corn was planted everywhere around his home when he was a child, even on the slopes of the cliffs.

In the canyons, the yield of corn per hectare is just over 1,500 kilograms, just enough to feed a family.

However, opportunities came along when cadres sent from across the province to help with the village's poverty alleviation efforts offered the farmers some advice. They chose to plant Amomum tsaoko, and the government provided them with the seeds.

The crop, with a higher yield and greater economic value, proved to be a cash cow. With their earnings from the new industry, farmers were able to move from their ramshackle lodgings to brick houses and have an extra meal each day.

Across Nujiang, the planting area for Amomum tsao-ko and other spices has hit 96,000 hectares. In 2019, the per capita agricultural income of farmers in Nujiang was nearly 3,000 yuan ($464), accounting for more than 40 percent of their per capita disposable income.

Despite its hardships, the prefecture is actively seeking a way out of poverty, using technological approaches to develop modern agriculture. In the Laowo township, an orange orchard equipped with an intelligent drip irrigation system was built in 2019. The orchard, covering over 20 hectares, is managed by an orange-planting cooperative co-founded by 132 poor households.

Li Jinxue, a researcher from the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who also works as a poverty relief cadre in the township, found that the local climate was suitable for growing the citrus fruit, but it was difficult to generate benefits due to a lack of scientific management and technology implementation.

Li introduced a smartphone-controlled drip irrigation system that can reduce human input as well as save water and fertilizer. "Now irrigation can be completed with just a few clicks on a screen. In the past, even with 10 people doing it, land had to be watered for five or six days," he says.

Local farmer Liu Heping says he has leased his land－less than 1 hectare－to the cooperative for an annual rent of 9,000 yuan, and earns 2,600 yuan a month as vice-president of the cooperative. He used to work in a brickyard and earned 100 yuan per day.

"We just sowed the seeds of intelligent agriculture and allowed them to take root and sprout," says Li.

Xinhua