Tunnels set to show their worth

Building new canals to improve irrigation in fields in Hualong Hui, Jainca and Xunhua Salar autonomous counties in Qinghai province was extremely hard work.

The initiative, known officially as the Qinghai Rural Water Management Project, required tunnels to be bored through the mountains - lots of tunnels.

In total, there are 45 tunnels along the four main canals, which start at the nearby Lijia and Gongbo gorges, with the longest stretching 10.72 kilometers.