Derung highway paves way to outside world

A highway was opened in Yunnan province on Monday, linking the home of the country's smallest ethnic group to the outside world.

Three years ago, the government of the Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture began building a tunnel and asphalt dirt road from Gongshan county to Dulongjiang township - homeland of the Derung ethnic group.

The township, which borders the Tibet autonomous region to the north and Myanmar to the west, has been home to about 70 percent of the Derung ethnic group in China for centuries. Access to the township is blocked from the outside world from October to late April.