LHASA, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Sichuan-Tibet Highway, traversing 14 mountains over 4,000 meters high and with a length of over 2,000 kilometers, opened to traffic in December 1954.

Over the past 60-plus years, the highway entering Tibet has witnessed great changes brought to locals.

Zongang County in Qamdo city, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, is one of the counties that the southern line of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway must pass through after entering Tibet. In the past, local residents lived scattered in the mountains. With the construction of the highway, more and more residents began to move near the road to enjoy the benefits brought by traffic.

The villager and his wife live in a two-story building, which was redecorated last year. Their son has moved out of the village and now works for an insurance company in Qamdo city. Thanks to the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, the family is living in the "fast lane."

The highway passes through Tongmai, a section where landslides and other geological disasters often happened. The section was renovated and reconstructed in April 2016. Since then, the highway is unimpeded.

Thanks to the efforts of generations, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway has undergone several upgrades and has become an important passageway connecting Tibet and Sichuan, attracting countless tourists and transporting large quantities of materials.

Small towns along the highway receive hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. Residents are living better lives by developing local industries.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service