keeping open the lifeline to Tibet

Highway linking the plateau a vital link, report Hu Yongqi and Li Yingqing in Deqen, Yunnan

'Hey, man, watch your back for falling rocks. There's another huge one coming down," shouted Yang Jun to the driver of an excavator clearing debris on National Highway 214.

Just a few seconds later, three large rocks, the biggest estimated at more than 10 metric tons, slammed onto the road. The driver avoided them by turning the excavator's enormous arm out of range, before starting once again on his work of breaking the stones and clearing the road.