Goodbye Hardship

An ethnic minority in southwest China’s mountainous area steps out of poverty.

- Yuan Yuan

Flanked by snow-capped mountains bordering Myanmar in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, Dulongjiang Township, named after the Dulong River that winds through it, used to be one of the poorest areas in China. The township is home to people of the Derung ethnic group, one of the ethnic minorities in China that has the smallest population.

Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the Derung people still lived an insulated and primitive life. It was not until 1999 that a road was built linking the area to the outside world, making it the last township in China to be connected by road. Access to the township was still blocked by snow for almost six months a year until a tunnel was completed in 2014.

Yunnan, which borders Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam, has 25 ethnic minorities. The vast mountainous areas in the province have been identified as a major target for the government’s poverty alleviation. One of the smallest and most isolated minorities, with less than 7,000 people, the Derung ethnic group shook off poverty in 2018.

Paving the way

“The life of the Derung people in recent years has changed dramatically,” said Gao, 65, former head of Dulongjiang Township, a key figure in leading local people out of poverty.

After graduating from a normal school in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Gao returned to his hometown. In 1984, he started to serve in the township government with the ambition of lifting the local people out of poverty.

By then, there were no roads, no regular schools and no businesses in the township. The rolling hills and harsh climate made it difficult to even build a road. School-aged children would have to slide along a steel wire above the roaring Dulong River to get to county schools. Landslides, avalanches, wild animal attacks and traffic accidents made life extremely harsh.