A fruit vendor sets up shop by the Zhamog-Metog Highway in the Xizang autonomous region in October. HUANG JINGUO/FOR CHINA DAILY

In the past, everything, including rice, salt and medicine, had to be carried on the backs of porters, or strapped to mules trudging over icy passes to reach Metog. And things were unthinkably expensive.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Drakpa became a porter when he was just 10. "At first, I could only carry 20 kilograms of goods. And each delivery trip to and from Bomi would demand more than 10 days of strenuous effort," he said. "I thought that's what life would always be like."

Today, he simply calls a courier service to deliver his tea anywhere in China.

Metog's tea industry was born in 2011 when teams from the coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian arrived under China's paired assistance program and realized the local monsoon climate was ideal for cultivation. Once the highway opened, the county government was able to scale production rapidly, transforming crude stilted villages into modern settlements equipped with stable infrastructure and bringing commodity prices down to match those of the outside world.