Telephone lines

Though telephones were already common in China's cities in the 1990s, Medog was not connected to a telephone network then.

Zondrui remembers when an old-style satellite phone was the most advanced communication tool in the county. It was a dial-out-only phone, and had no set number for itself. The phone was easily damaged as the electricity voltage in Medog was very unstable.

"If the phone broke after October, we would be unable to use it for the rest of the year," Zondrui says.

Due to bad weather in the mountains, it was impossible to send anything out for repair until the old rustic road was reopened in spring. And it might take until August to get it back.

The phone was finally "retired" in 2004, when a kind of mobile phone was introduced there.

Snail mail

There was no post office in the county town, either. In terms of letters, the usual practice was to ask a fellow villager to post them on the way to Bayi town, which was four days' walk away.

"Letters sent from outside usually went missing, so I simply didn't write them," says Zondrui.

However, letters were still an important way to communicate when Zondrui returned to work in Medog in 1997, and handling mail was part of his work until 2006. Letters to Medog used to be stored in a special office in Bayi town. Someone would only bring the backlogged letters the rest of the way when they came for other tasks or business.

"It sometimes took a year or even longer before the letters were received, and often the letters were lost in the end," Zondrui says. Due to traffic difficulties, packages were not allowed to be posted.

In August 2009, a 30-million-yuan ($4.9 million) optical-fiber cable telecommunications project, funded by the central government, revolutionized communications in Medog.

The project took four months because it was the rainy season.

"After much effort to complete some sections, they could be washed away by a flood the next day," Zondrui says.

The community is still often paralyzed by various geological hazards. In 2010, major damage to the cable required heavy maintenance, and cost more than 10 million yuan.

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