Representing a 'retreat from the world' rewarding

The outsiders call my hometown in Metog county, the Tibet autonomous region, a retreat away from the world. As someone who grew up in the county surrounded by forest-covered mountains, I know what isolation means to the people who live there.

People used to say that reaching Tibet is not easy, but getting to Metog county is even more difficult because people had to walk on the dangerous mountain roads to get there.

Before a tunnel was excavated in the mountain and a new road was built in 2013, the county was completely cut off from the outside world for three months every winter because people couldn't get in or out.