Roads That Connect Qamdo With The Outside World

Qamdo was a part of the Tubo Kingdom. But, when the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) came to power in China, pacification commissioner’s offices were set up to bring the area under tight central government control. In October 1950, the PLA liberated Qamdo, and the Qamdo Liberation Committee was set up to operate directly under the State Council. On April 20, 1959, the committee was disbanded, and Qamdo became a part of Tibet.

Located in the Henduan Mountains, traversed by the Jinshajiang, Lancanjiang and Nujiang rivers at an average elevation of 3,500 meters, the Qamdo area has many deep ravines. Mountains make up 95.48 percent of total land area.

Before 1950, the Qamdo area did not have a single proper road. All goods had to be carried on the backs of horses or humans.

Today, however, more than 90 percent of the goods and people are transported by highway.

POST STATIONS AND POST ROUTES. Paths described as sheep’s intestines by the Chinese were the only roads available to travelers before 1950. Fully loaded with goods, both beasts of burden and men suffered hard days during their journeys.

Accidents were not uncommon on the many precipices they had to cross, and they were often literally only one step away from death.

Comparatively speaking, post routes were roads in the modern sense. First built during China’s Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), including three built when Tubo King Songtsan Gambo married the Chinese Tang Princess Wencheng. Along the routes were post stations where travelers could pause or stay the night.

During the Yuan Dynasty, which unified China and incorporated Tibet into the Chinese map, the Central Government built 27 large post stations, including nine under the rule of the Dorgansi Pacification Commissioner’s Office, which exercised jurisdiction over present-day Yushu in Qinghai Province, northern Garze Prefecture, the northern Qamdo area and the northern Nagqu area. In between these post stations were sub-stations separated by the distance one that could normally be covered in one day on horseback.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), which replaced the Yuan, special efforts were made to restore and renovate the post routes and post stations. According to an edict from Emperor Yongle in 1407, the Ya’an-Dbus and Tsang Route was opened to further facilitate contacts between the Central Plains and Tibet. It contributed to the formation of the Northern and Southern Post Routes, both passing through Qamdo. Post routes were used mainly by imperial envoys to deliver imperial edicts, and by Tibetan officials.

In 1930, when the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China (1912-1949) sent its envoy, Liu Manqing (then 24 years old), to Tibet, she followed the route from Nanjing to Dajianlu, Litang, Zaya and Qamdo. In 43 days the party covered 1,295 km. It then took them a further 36 days to travel on to Lhasa, via Enda, Lholung, Jia and Gyiangda, a distance of 1,240 km.

Such post routes were also used for the shipment of materials needed by the Tibetans in Qamdo and other parts of Tibet. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, inland tea was transported from Sichuan and Yunnan to Qamdo and further into Tibet.

-Kangding was the tea collection and reshipment center in Sichuan. The transport teams composed of mules and horses headed for Tibet via Gyangze and Qamdo.

-Dali was the tea collection and reshipment center in Yunnan. Xishuangbanna and Simao toucha tea (in the shape of bowls) were transported to Tibet via Lijiang, Zhongdian and Deqen in Yunnan, and Bamda, Zayu or Qamdo, Lholung, Gyiangda, and finally to Lhasa.

In the same period, efforts were made to ship products native to Tibet (including sheep hides, Tibetan cushions, medicinal herbs and wool), as well as Indian medicine, cloth and sundry goods, to inland China, and it was common to see thousands of mules and horses trudging along these paths. Before 1950, there were many routes that cut through Qamdo:

Qamdo-Lhasa Route, going westward to Enda, Lholung, Shubando, Benba and Jiali;

Qamdo-Lhasa Route, going westward to Enda, Riwoqe, Dengqen, Sog, Nagqu and Jiali;

Qamdo-Lhasa Route, also heading westward through Enda, Lholung, Bome, Nyingchi and Mainling;

Qamdo-Yushu (Qinghai) Route. It went northward to Enda, Riwoqe and Xianqian;

Qamdo-Deqen (Yunnan) or Batang (Sichuan). It went southward to Jitang, Bamda, Zogung, Mangkang, Deqen (Yunnan). From Zogung it turned south to Zayu, and from Mangkang it then went eastward to Batang;

Qamdo-Batang Route. It went south to Chagyab, where it turned off for Mangkang or Kangding via Batang; and

Qamdo-Kangding Route. It went eastward to Tuba and Dege.

MODERN HIGHWAYS. When Qamdo was liberated in 1950 and especially when Tibet achieved peaceful liberation in 1951, the Central Government made great efforts to build highways in Tibet.

For their construction and maintenance, the Central Government has invested. In the five years from 1995 to 1999, for example, a total of 52.2 million Yuan was spent.

In the Qamdo area, there are three national highways: G317, which is the northern route of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, G318, the southern route, and G214, which is the Yunnan-Tibet Highway. Other roads include the Bamda-Nagqu Highway, two county-level highways and one special-purpose highway.

A total of 5,406 km of roads cut through Qamdo Prefecture, including 1,658 km of national trunk highways, 507 km of provincial-level trunk highways, and 114 km of special-purpose highways.

All the 11 counties under Qamdo Prefecture are connected by road. Of the 142 townships in the prefecture, 113 are accessible by road, but only 295 out of 1,639 villages so far have such access.

By 2020, the Qamdo Prefecture is scheduled to have a road network totaling 11,554 km.

Major highways that pass through the Qamdo Prefecture are:

-Xikang-Tibet Highway. In 1950 when the PLA began to march into Tibet, Chairman Mao Zedong issued an order: "Marching while building roads". On April 13, ground was broken in Ya’an, Xikang Province, for construction of the Xikang-Tibet Highway.

In March 1951, a group of 600 specialists were organized to survey the site. Chairman Mao personally planned the highway’s construction, and the PLA 18th Army was charged with building the section from Garze to Qamdo, Taizao and Lhasa.

On December 20, 1952, the Garze-Qamdo section was completed. On January 5, 1953, Chairman Mao approved construction of the southern route from Qamdo to Lhasa. This made it possible for the Xikang-Tibet and Qinghai-Tibet highways to reach Lhasa. The road was opened to traffic in December 1954.

On November 1955, Xikang Province was annulled, and the Xikang-Tibet Highway was renamed Sichuan-Tibet Highway.

In 1963, work began on the southern section of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, namely National Highway 318. Extending from Olho to Litang, Batang, Zobalung, Mangkang and Bamda, it was completed in August 1964.

-Yunnan-Tibet Highway. It covers 715 km from Xiaguan in Yunnan to Mangkang in Tibet. Construction began in August 1950 and the section from Xiaguan to Lijiang was quickly completed. But further construction work was sporadic so that the highway was only finally completed in October 1973.

-Nagqu-Qamdo Highway. As the Xikang-Tibet Highway was often damaged by natural calamities, the Tibet Work Committee of the Central Government decided to build the 745-km highway in 1956, and construction began three years later. Other highways were also built between Qamdo and Chagyab, Lholung, Benba, Tuba and Bamda.

AIR SERVICES. In 1978, Bamda Airport, with a 5,500 meter-long runway, was built at an elevation of 4,300 meters, but, for a variety of reasons, was not used. It was repaired in 1990, and in 1992, the State Council earmarked 270 million Yuan for further repair of the runway and the addition of other facilities. Renovation of the airport was completed in 1994, and it can now handle jumbo jets.

Each week, the airport has six scheduled flights to Chengdu or Lhasa. In 1998, it was used by 16,900 passengers.