Villagers cut rope to the past

A new mountain road has freed outpost from the yoke of isolation

Before moving into his new house, Choisa Tsegon went to the banks of the Xixi River on June 28 to look at a cable spanning a waterway in the mountains of Sichuan province.

His remote village in Butuo county, Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, is enclosed by steep mountains on three sides and the river on the other.

The 41-year-old from the Yi ethnic group stood and contemplated the important role the cable had played in the lives of all the villagers.

There were only two ways to get to the outside world. Residents could climb up and down a mountain path to reach the nearest village with a paved road, or they could pull themselves across the cable to get quicker access to it.

Many chose the faster path, sometimes lashing livestock and possessions to their bodies before they pulled themselves along the cable.