XINING, Dec.12 -- Not long ago, horseback delivery was the only viable messaging service in the vast barrens surrounding Changjiangyuan Village on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

With houses spread far apart and a lack of telecommunications infrastructure, village Party secretary Cering Zhado says cell phone signals were difficult to come by and landlines were uncommon.

"We lived far away from each other and the cell phone signal was not stable," the 42-year-old said.

"Sometimes we had to ride on horseback to deliver a message, just like in ancient tradition."

Even handwritten messages sometimes failed, as several of the elders in the herding village were unable to understand written Chinese. In these cases, Cering says they resorted to loudspeakers to communicate.

"But we couldn't get an immediate response. We did not communicate very often back then," he says.

While messaging apps such as Tencent's WeChat have become commonplace in cities throughout China, the tiny plateau village of less than 1,000 residents was isolated for years from the technological leaps of the modern era.

To improve the situation, Qinghai Province has spent 9.04 billion yuan (about 1.46 billion U.S. dollars) since late 2013 on broadband Internet and telecommunication infrastructure.

As of November this year, all 366 villages and towns in Qinghai Province have gained access to broadband Internet, allowing services like WeChat to be used by about 235,000 herdsmen for low prices.

In April, Cering Zhado installed WeChat on his smartphone and created two groups: one for all villagers, another for Party members in the village. More than 100 members have already joined his villagers' group.

"Now whenever there's an activity, I send a voice message to notify everyone in my group chat, and I get responses immediately," he said.

Since then, communication has never been easier, he says.

"For example, anything lost can be found more easily, whether it's a key, a cell phone or even a person," Cering Zhado said.

A 17-year-old resident was reported lost in May. Her parents found her the next day in a city that is 440 km away from the village.

"Zhazha Lamo's parents reported the girl missing in the group chat first, and people started to seek help from their WeChat networks. A villager who worked in the city later provided the tip," he said.

One of the village's youngest residents, 15-year-old Yangar Zhoema, says that in the past year all of her family members signed up for a WeChat account, except for her grandmother.

"The elders can't speak Mandarin well, and some people do not know how to type. Now they can send voice messages through the application, it's convenient," Yangar Zhoema said.

Kangar Namje, deputy Party secretary of Changjiangyuan village, said he is now using a 50MB data access plan for 10 yuan per month. "The plan is a lot cheaper than making phone calls. I spend in average of 50 to 60 yuan per month on my cell phone," he said.