China announced Thursday that it had connected a Tibetan county, Medog, to the nation’s highway system, ending the relative isolation of the area. Until Wednesday, Medog, in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, was the last county in China with no highway linking it to the outside world, officials said. The announcement was made on the front page of China Daily, an English-language newspaper, and signaled the pride that Chinese officials have in the country’s rapid infrastructure development.

The village has a population of 11,000, and snow and rain made the narrow roads to the area impassable nine months of the year.

In 2006, China completed a railroad that connected Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, to the province of Qinghai; it was an engineering marvel, but it has drawn controversy because some Tibetans say it is speeding the migration of ethnic Han to the region.