A highway opened to traffic recently at Yangla Township in Deqin County, a Tibetan-inhabited area in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Construction of the 147-km-long road began in 1991 at a cost of 85 million yuan. It took nine years to complete as the region has a rugged geographical feature and frequently plagued by natural disasters.

Completion of the road makes it possible for Yunnan to link al its townships with national or provincial highway networks.

Yangla Township lies on a mountainous area where Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and the Tibet Autonomous Region intersect. In the past, local residents used to cross over the snow-clad mountain carrying some 1,000 tons of daily necessities.

The highway will greatly help Deqin's economic development, said the county head.