STRAND OF HOPE

    Cable across canyon promises to bring new prosperity to orange farmers

    For Hu Xueping and his fellow villagers, the road to prosperity had been blocked for years by a canyon 300 meters wide. Now, after a cable was strung across the void to connect the small community with the outside world, the villagers have renewed hope for a better life.

    Hu, 63, is a resident of Qinghaoyu village in Zigui, Hubei province. The eight households there make their living by growing navel oranges.

    In the past, the villagers had to carry their produce on their backs, walking a precipitous 1-kilometer road to sell them. The road is so treacherous that many villagers have been injured.

    The cost for hiring someone to transport the oranges is 300 yuan ($57.70; 41.35 euros; £35.26) a day. That's a big chunk of the 400 yuan in revenue for 400 kilograms of naval oranges, let alone the difficulty of finding people to do the job. Last year, the snowy and icy weather damaged more than 2,500 kg of oranges before they could be carried to market.

    Mules are also costly. And a plan to build a road was denied because some villagers were reluctant to see their land taken away.

    That's why, in 2014, Hu Xueping decided to string a cable himself. His younger brother Hu Xueman, who had lost both arms, joined him.

    They leveled a field, built an operation room and carried cables to the other side of the canyon - the most difficult part of the project.

    After the cable was strung, they found it would not operate normally due to low electrical voltage. Fortunately, a local power company, upon learning about the situation, provided a transformer and strung 2 kilometers of power transmission line to the village.

    On Dec 6, after more than two years of work, the little tram carried its first basket of navel oranges out of the village. The cable takes a quarter of the time it takes to walk, at less than one-tenth the cost.

    With the price of navel oranges rising this year, villagers have hope for brighter prospects. Yi Renzi, a villager who once worked in cities, like many rural youths, said he would stay at home and take care of the orange trees instead.

    希望之索峡谷中的致富索道

    对胡学平和他的村民来说，他们的财富之路多年来被一条300米宽的峡谷阻隔。现在，当一条索道将这个小村庄和外界联系起来之后，村民们重新燃起了对追求更好生活的希望。

    胡学平，63岁，湖北省秭归县青蒿峪村村民，那里的八户居民靠种植脐橙为生。

    过去，村民们只能将他们的收获扛在背上，步行1公里险峻的山路去山外进行销售，很多村民都因为走这条艰险的路而受伤。

    大山里请帮工一天的工钱要300元（57.7美元；41.35欧元；35.26英镑），400公斤橙子也只能卖400多元，更不用说请帮工之难。去年，由于运输渠道的匮乏，超过2500公斤的脐橙在还没来得及投放市场就因冰雪灾害而损失。

    骡马运，成本高；建公路，有些村民们不愿自己的土地被占用。

    因为这些原因。2014年，胡学平决心自费修建一条索道。他的兄弟胡学满——一位失去双臂的残疾人，加入到了他的行列。

    他们平整了一块场地，建了一个工作间，并把索缆带到了峡谷的另一边——这是工程中最困难的部分。

    索道建好后，他们却发现索道因为电压不足而无法正常工作。当地电力公司得知情况后，给村里新建了一个变压器并提供了2公里的输电线路。

    12月6日，经过两年的劳作，第一批脐橙通过索道运出大山。与人工搬运相比，索道的运送速度快了4倍，运输成本则是原来的十分之一。

    随着脐橙价格的上涨，村民们看到了更光明的致富前景。易仁孜——一位曾经在城市里打拼过的年轻人，像许多当地的同龄人一样，选择留在家乡种脐橙。

    图一：HU XUEPING(left) and Hu Xueman stand on the cable car.

    胡学平（左）和胡学满站在缆车上。