Pictured is the highway upgraded under the Cajamarca regional highway rehabilitation and maintenance project in Peru. (File photo)
Lima (People's Daily) – At 6 am, the morning mist still clung to the mountains of Peru's northern Cajamarca region.
Trucks loaded with passion fruit, custard apples and lucuma rolled out of mountain villages, making their way downhill along the newly paved highway. Terraced fields lined one side of the road, while the Andes stretched across the other. Driver José Augusto navigated the winding route, occasionally sounding his horn to greet passing vehicles.
Pictured is the highway upgraded under the Cajamarca regional highway rehabilitation and maintenance project in Peru. (File photo)
"What used to worry me most on this route was the rain," Augusto told People's Daily. In the past, many sections were little more than rough mountain tracks. During the rainy season, they turned into muddy quagmires where vehicles frequently became stuck, while landslides sometimes brought traffic to a complete halt.
"Now that the road has been repaired, the journey takes much less time and transportation costs have fallen," he said.
The Cajamarca regional highway rehabilitation and maintenance project, undertaken by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), recently passed its final inspection.
Located in the highlands of northern Peru, the 247-kilometer highway connects multiple remote communities at elevations ranging from 1,500 to 2,800 meters. The completed project directly benefits 32 communities and more than 200,000 residents.
Further along the route, a mountain marketplace was filled with avocados, passion fruit and fresh vegetables. Villagers loaded produce onto trucks bound for nearby towns.
María González, a 55-year-old farmer who has sold produce here for more than two decades, said transportation used to be her biggest challenge.
"What worried me most wasn't growing the crops. It was getting them to market," she said.
Poor road conditions discouraged truck drivers from traveling into remote mountain communities, forcing many farmers to sell at low prices or watch their produce spoil.
Today, improved road access has attracted more buyers.
"Prices are better, we have more ways to sell our goods and our incomes have increased," González said.
The highway also provides better access to schools and healthcare.
At a community health clinic along the route, a local nurse recalled that patients from remote mountain villages once had to travel for hours to reach a hospital. During bad weather, road closures often made the journey impossible.
"Now ambulances can reach villages much faster, and patients can get to the hospital more easily," the nurse said. "For many families, this isn't just a road. It's a lifeline."
Building the highway in the Andes was no easy task.
According to Dai Changhui, project manager of the Cajamarca highway rehabilitation and maintenance project for CCECC’s Americas regional company, the construction site featured rugged terrain, steep slopes and large temperature swings between day and night.
Through careful planning and scientific construction management, the project team overcame difficult geological conditions and changing weather while ensuring both quality and progress.
The project also created jobs for locals and provided vocational training.
Kevin Pur, a 29-year-old worker, is among those who benefited. After joining the project, he started as a general laborer before learning road construction and heavy machinery operation.
"I used to have no stable job," Pur said. "Now I have valuable skills and a better income."
After the project ends, he hopes to continue working in infrastructure construction.
Carlos Vargas, mayor of Cutervo, said the highway is a vital part of Cajamarca’s transportation network.
It improved travel for communities while strengthening connections between neighboring areas, benefiting agriculture, commerce and tourism.
As the sun set, trucks continued winding through the mountains. Farmers worked in fields beside the highway while children carrying schoolbags walked home.
"It used to take a whole day to cross the mountains. Now it takes just a few hours," Vargas said while looking down the highway. "This road has changed many people's lives."
"It used to take a whole day to cross the mountains. Now it takes just a few hours."
By Chen Yiming, People's Daily App
Pictured is the highway upgraded under the Cajamarca regional highway rehabilitation and maintenance project in Peru. (File photo)
Lima (People's Daily) – At 6 am, the morning mist still clung to the mountains of Peru’s northern Cajamarca region.
Trucks loaded with passion fruit, custard apples and lucuma rolled out of mountain villages, making their way downhill along the newly paved highway. Terraced fields lined one side of the road, while the Andes stretched across the other. Driver José Augusto navigated the winding route, occasionally sounding his horn to greet passing vehicles.
Pictured is the highway upgraded under the Cajamarca regional highway rehabilitation and maintenance project in Peru. (File photo)
"What used to worry me most on this route was the rain," Augusto told People's Daily. In the past, many sections were little more than rough mountain tracks. During the rainy season, they turned into muddy quagmires where vehicles frequently became stuck, while landslides sometimes brought traffic to a complete halt.
"Now that the road has been repaired, the journey takes much less time and transportation costs have fallen," he said.
The Cajamarca regional highway rehabilitation and maintenance project, undertaken by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), recently passed its final inspection.
Located in the highlands of northern Peru, the 247-kilometer highway connects multiple remote communities at elevations ranging from 1,500 to 2,800 meters. The completed project directly benefits 32 communities and more than 200,000 residents.
Further along the route, a mountain marketplace was filled with avocados, passion fruit and fresh vegetables. Villagers loaded produce onto trucks bound for nearby towns.
María González, a 55-year-old farmer who has sold produce here for more than two decades, said transportation used to be her biggest challenge.
"What worried me most wasn't growing the crops. It was getting them to market," she said.
Poor road conditions discouraged truck drivers from traveling into remote mountain communities, forcing many farmers to sell at low prices or watch their produce spoil.
Today, improved road access has attracted more buyers.
"Prices are better, we have more ways to sell our goods and our incomes have increased," González said.
The highway also provides better access to schools and healthcare.
At a community health clinic along the route, a local nurse recalled that patients from remote mountain villages once had to travel for hours to reach a hospital. During bad weather, road closures often made the journey impossible.
"Now ambulances can reach villages much faster, and patients can get to the hospital more easily," the nurse said. "For many families, this isn't just a road. It's a lifeline."
Building the highway in the Andes was no easy task.
According to Dai Changhui, project manager of the Cajamarca highway rehabilitation and maintenance project for CCECC’s Americas regional company, the construction site featured rugged terrain, steep slopes and large temperature swings between day and night.
Through careful planning and scientific construction management, the project team overcame difficult geological conditions and changing weather while ensuring both quality and progress.
The project also created jobs for locals and provided vocational training.
Kevin Pur, a 29-year-old worker, is among those who benefited. After joining the project, he started as a general laborer before learning road construction and heavy machinery operation.
"I used to have no stable job," Pur said. "Now I have valuable skills and a better income."
After the project ends, he hopes to continue working in infrastructure construction.
Carlos Vargas, mayor of Cutervo, said the highway is a vital part of Cajamarca’s transportation network.
It improved travel for communities while strengthening connections between neighboring areas, benefiting agriculture, commerce and tourism.
As the sun set, trucks continued winding through the mountains. Farmers worked in fields beside the highway while children carrying schoolbags walked home.
"It used to take a whole day to cross the mountains. Now it takes just a few hours," Vargas said while looking down the highway. "This road has changed many people's lives."