(Reporter Liao Quan and correspondent Xu Shengni) On March 11th, over a thousand runners gathered for a trial on the newly-built marathon racing tracks in Yuanan County, which takes on a new look as a small part of the 1,600- km rural roads reconstructed in Yuanan.

　　Since the coordination of rural road construction, management, protection and running has been comprehensively promoted in Yuanan County during recent years, the residents in the countryside areas need not walk on muddy roads any more. Luyuan Village is one of the four major areas that produce yellow tea in China. However, due to the narrow and shabby roads of the village, it was very difficult for villagers to transport their tea outside in rainy seasons, for which the villagers often lost the chance of selling their tea into market. Nowadays, the roads in front of the villagers’ houses have been cemented, as has solved the problem of transportation and accelerated the development of tea industry. Besides, more agricultural specialties of Yuanan, such as the rice of Wacang Village, the silk of Goujiaya Village and so on, were once “hidden” in the remote mountainous areas have now had their value doubled and been shipped out of the mountains and sold to all corners of China.

　　Last year, 69.8 million RMB of financial funds has been invested in Yuanan County for construction or reconstruction of 504 km of the rural roads and road hardening in residential areas with over 20 families or 50 people, as well as opening 33 new passenger lines that made buses accessible to all the102 villages of the County. The investment also covered reconstruction of 118.6-kilometer passenger transport roads in the mountainous area, maintenance of traffic facilities for 100-kilometer dangerous roads and opening of 22 school bus routes benefiting more than 600 primary school students of the piloting township districts.