Last village without a road is connected to the outside world

Workers have installed a 420-meter steel cable linking the valley with the road. There, a cable car can transport a 1 metric ton load.

Liangshan, which boasts the country's largest number of Yi people, is one of the least developed areas in Sichuan.

To alleviate poverty in Abuluoha－which has 253 people and is 60 kilometers from the Butuo county seat－the Sichuan provincial Department of Transportation is building the road.

Due to the village's inaccessibility, an M26 helicopter was rented to transport eight large excavators and other equipment.

As the construction site was very narrow, excavators could not be used at the same time and the pace of construction was very slow.

Sometimes only five meters of the road were built on a single day, said Hu Wei, an official in charge of the construction site.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ahdame Youzha, a 23-year-old grocery store owner in Abuluoha, spent about 20 minutes reaching the road from the cable car station.

"It used to take nearly seven hours to reach the county seat from my home. Thanks to the cable car, it takes less than three hours," she said.

Jinie Ziri, the village Party chief, said villagers would expand the growing area of seedless pepper and konjac, two local specialties, and build an eco-tourism base to increase income in the wake of the opening of the road in April.