China opens strategic Tibet highway near Indian border

The new road descends sharply from its starting point at the county border, 4,300 m above sea level and covered by snow year-round, to the forest-surrounded county seat at an altitude of 1,300 m.



The Tibetan highway was the fifth time since the 1950s that the central and local governments have worked on a road.  The government allotted USD 156 million for the last phase of the work.

Lobsang Jamcan, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government, announced the road will be opened eight months a year and it would operate year-round if weather permits.  Strategists said the road brings benefits in “not just one single aspect”.

“Similar to the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the road reaching China's border area can help consolidate our remote land and ensure stability,” said Sun Hongnian, a researcher of Chinese borderland history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.