The priority is building roads. At the end of 2019, Abuluoha Village in Butuo County, believed to be the last village without a road in Liangshan, was connected to a paved road. Located in the deep valley of the Jinsha River, the village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and cliffs on the fourth. In the past, villagers had to walk more than three hours to another village where they could take a paved road to travel to the county seat and other places.

Thanks to these efforts, four counties in Liangshan have shed poverty, according to an announcement by the Sichuan Provincial Government on February 18.

Liangshan still has seven poor counties including Zhaojue. Nationwide, there are 52 counties left in poverty.

As China is going to eliminate absolute poverty this year, the prefecture is also intensifying efforts.

"Developing specialty industries is key to ensuring stable income for the impoverished people in Liangshan," said Zhang Qi, Director of the China Institute for Poverty Reduction at Beijing Normal University. He said Liangshan can develop modern planting, forestry, fruit and tourism industries with regional characteristics, and focus on branding and marketing organic agricultural products.

Gong Ping, head of the Liangshan Transportation Bureau, said Liangshan plans to build 16 expressways, and all its counties are expected to be connected by highways within five to 10 years. Currently, there is only one expressway in the prefecture, which is shut down for about 100 days a year because of ice and snow or geological disasters, which hinders delivery of agricultural products and also local people's pursuit for prosperity. "After the highway network is built, it will help specialty products to get out of Liangshan, Sichuan and even the country," he said.