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Across China: Farewell, Nujiang ziplines!

Xinhua, October 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

At the age of 32, Chu Sihua, a villager from southwest China's mountainous province of Yunnan, has to quit the voluntary job he has done for 17 years.

Thanks to a newly-built bridge on the Nujiang River, or Salween River, Chu no longer needs to fly the dangerous journey on a 200-meter-long steel cable hanging over the river.

"I am the best in the village. I can take a cow or a horse across the river, even at night," said Chu, proud of helping his fellow villagers to send rice, vegetable and even bicycles across the river on the iconic cable ziplines.

Normally, Chu hoists a pulley onto the cable, ties a homemade rope around himself, kicks his legs against a rock and in 10 seconds he is on the opposite side.

In the distant Yunnan hamlets along the Nujiang where no bridges existed, all types of commodities from food to livestock to cinderblocks for new houses, had to be sent across on ziplines.

In 1957, the first steel cable was set up across the river in Nujiang Prefecture to replace the more dangerous bamboo strips. By the end of 2011, there were still 42 steel cables.

Deng Qiandui, a doctor at Lamadi Village in the Nujiang Valley, used the zipline for 28 years to visit his patients on the other side of the river.

The government took action in 2012 when Deng's hardship was made public in the media. The provincial government decided to demolish most of the ziplines and replace them with concrete bridges that cars and motorbikes could use.

The construction of 181 bridges above the Nujiang River is expected to be finished by the end of the year, ending the zipline's historical role as a means of transport.

Nujiang Prefecture, the poorest region in the province, where 94 percent of its 540,000 population are ethnic minorities, is expected to benefit from the project.

Ten ziplines will be kept for tourism, which Chu hopes may offer a more prosperous life.

"We will charge tourists 30 yuan (4.5 U.S. dollars) for a one-way ride, " said Chu, who relies on a small patch of corn and raising pigs to earn a living.

"They can experience our hardship," he said. Endite