The women usually wear a trumpet-shaped white felt hat with two black lines in front, topped by red tassels. In the last few decades, wool shearing has been mechanized, animal stocks improved and steps taken to have the herdsmen settle down and pastures grazed by rotation. Reservoirs have been built, ponds dug and underground water tapped to irrigate large tracks of dry pastures and provide drinking water for animals. The Yugurs used to hunt wild animals without trying to domesticate any, but in 1958 they began to set up farms to domesticate wild deer. In industry, the area now has farm and livestock-breeding machinery factories, carpet, fur, and food processing industries, and coal mining.
Electricity reaches all townships and most Yugur homes.
Wool shearing, threshing and fodder-crushing machines are now in extensive use. There is a developed network of highways now. At the time there were only four primary schools with a total student body of 70, mostly children of tribal chiefs, herd owners and landlords. In the early 1980s Sunan County had two senior middle schools, eight junior middle schools and 76 primary schools. Many young Yugurs were able to finish secondary technical or college education.