In Benzilan, a small town in southwest China's Yunnan Province that once served as a key stop on the ancient Tea Horse Road, traditional wooden bowls are still crafted by local artisans. Decades ago, such goods were hauled across mountain passes by mule caravans, a journey that often took weeks to reach markets in Xizang. Today, trucks can make the same journey in a matter of days along the Yunnan-Xizang Highway.

The contrast offers a glimpse into how transportation across China's southwest highlands has changed since the highway was fully opened to traffic 50 years ago.

Completed on July 6, 1976, the Yunnan-Xizang Highway stretches more than 700 kilometers from Dali in Yunnan Province to Markam in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, where it connects with the Sichuan-Xizang Highway. As one of China's four major highways into Xizang, it has long served as a key corridor for travel, trade and exchanges across the Hengduan Mountains. Over the past five decades, the road has evolved alongside the regions it connects, linking not only places, but also people, products and opportunities.

From caravan trails to modern roads

Long before highways crossed the mountains of southwest China, travel and trade depended on the ancient Tea Horse Road network.

For centuries, mule caravans carried tea, salt and other goods along routes connecting Yunnan, Sichuan and Xizang. Beyond the plateau, branches of the Tea Horse Road extended toward present-day Nepal and India, forming part of a broader network of commercial and cultural exchanges across Asia.

The trade routes also facilitated cultural, religious and intellectual exchanges between communities living along the plateau and mountain regions. Many settlements along the route prospered as trading posts, linking markets in Yunnan with communities across the plateau.

The arrival of modern roads transformed those connections. Journeys that once required weeks of travel through mountain passes could be completed in a matter of days. As transport infrastructure continued to improve, the movement of goods and people became more frequent, helping integrate remote communities into broader economic and social networks.

Today, traces of the Tea Horse Road can still be found in towns along the route, but the highway has become the main artery connecting the region with the outside world.

A corridor for people and products

The impact of the Yunnan-Xizang Highway is perhaps most visible in the daily movement of goods.

Along the route, markets receive agricultural products, consumer goods and construction materials transported from neighboring provinces. Improved road conditions and logistics networks have made it easier for products to move between Yunnan and Xizang, supporting commercial exchanges and reducing transportation costs.

The road has also helped local specialties reach wider markets. Products from the plateau and surrounding mountain regions, including mushrooms, agricultural products and traditional handicrafts, are increasingly sold beyond their places of origin. At the same time, goods from other parts of China flow more easily into communities along the route.

Tourism has become another important driver of activity. Each year, travelers from across China and overseas follow the highway to destinations such as Shangri-La, Meili Snow Mountain and Yubeng Village. Official figures show the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where most of the Yunnan-side route lies, received 36.36 million tourist visits in 2025, up 16.4% year on year, with 472,600 inbound travelers marking a 56.7% increase from the previous year. At Meili Snow Mountain alone, visitor numbers doubled to roughly 600,000 in 2025, and overseas arrivals in the winter season surged 116.35% year on year.

What were once mainly transit points have developed tourism-related businesses ranging from guesthouses and restaurants to cultural experience programs. The route has become not only a transportation corridor but also part of the travel experience itself. For many visitors, the journey offers a chance to experience landscapes and cultures shaped by centuries of exchanges along the Tea Horse Road. For local communities, growing visitor numbers have created new opportunities in hospitality, transportation and related services.

New journeys on an old highway

While the highway was built half a century ago, its role continues to evolve. One of the most visible changes in recent years has been the emergence of new forms of mobility and logistics along the route. In January 2026, a full battery-swap network was officially launched along the Yunnan-Xizang travel corridor. Stretching over 2,700 kilometers from Kunming to the Mount Everest base camp area, the network includes 19 battery swap stations – one roughly every 142 kilometers – making long-distance electric vehicle travel increasingly practical in high-altitude areas. Electric passenger cars, delivery vans and freight trucks are becoming an increasingly common sight on a route once dominated by diesel-powered trucks and buses.

The shift reflects broader changes in China's transportation landscape. Along sections of the highway that once posed major logistical challenges, modern service facilities now support tourism, freight transport and long-distance travel. About 90% of the power for the new charging and swap network comes from local clean energy sources such as hydropower and solar power, aligning the historic trade route with global trends in low-carbon travel. The route that once connected remote mountain communities is increasingly integrated into wider transportation and logistics networks.

The highway's function has expanded as well. Beyond serving as a transport route, it now supports tourism, e-commerce logistics, regional supply chains and cross-regional mobility. What began as a road connecting two neighboring regions has become part of a wider network linking markets, industries and communities.

More than a road

Fifty years ago, the completion of the Yunnan-Xizang Highway helped establish a modern transportation link across one of China's most geographically challenging regions. Today, its significance extends beyond transportation.

Fifty years after its completion, the Yunnan-Xizang Highway continues to connect mountain communities with markets, travelers with destinations and a historic trade corridor with the dynamics of a modern economy. Along a route once traveled by caravans moving between China, the Himalayan region and South Asia, the forms of movement have changed, but the idea of connection remains much the same.