Hard times

Local resident Zhang Debin said: "It was hard for farmers to walk up and down with full baskets on their backs. Sometimes, they had to pay porters when the tea they grew was ripe."

The 43-year-old operates a tea-processing plant in Pingshan county, which is under the jurisdiction of Yibin, a mountain-encompassed city in southern Sichuan.

He said the only proper road for vehicles ran through Yibin, and while it was fine in good weather, mud made it impassible after rain.

"Poor transportation facilities affected communication with the outside world, and the inhabitants of this place lacked almost everything: food; clean water; gas; you name it," Zhang Debin said.

"In the past, the standard of living was low for many people in the county."

Until 1983, about 60 percent of county towns in the province were inaccessible to automobiles, so most places relied on human and animal power for transportation, he added.