New paved road offers lifeline to once-isolated Yunnan village

The Bala village [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Sitting at the foot of Gezong Snow Mountain, 1,300-year-old Bala village was isolated deep in Shangri-La Grand Canyon in the Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Yunnan province until 2008, when an asphalt road was completed after more than one decade's hard work.