Poverty-stricken villagers say goodbye to terrifying ropeways

On July 1, a new page was opened in the history of Yingge Village in northeast Yunnan’s Qiaojia County as the newly-built Yingge Bridge was open to traffic after more than 900 days of construction. But before that, the villagers had to rely on an iron cage running on cableways across the Jinshua River to the outside world.  

The 260-meter-high and 470-meter-long cableway, dubbed “the highest cable car system in Asia” was built in 1999. For locals, it was perilous for riding the cable car, but they didn’t have other choice. Fortunately, the government built the Yingge Bridge which is 385.5 meters long and the iron cage came to its retirement. Now, the villagers have safer means of transport. They are looking forward to changes which the bridge will bring to their hometown and life.   

Accordingly, Yunnan will replace more than 100 cableways with sturdy bridges in the fight against poverty, which means more villagers will have safer means of transport. The construction of bridges is also expected to boost local economic growth and social development.

Editor: Wang Shixue