A ticket to the good life

Like migratory birds whose return heralds summer, jet aircraft descend on a remote city in Tibet, harbingers of prosperity whose fruits inhabitants are beginning to enjoy.

And even as aircraft home in on the new terminal at Nyingchi airport, opened four months ago, elsewhere on the ground workers are toiling away on a challenging seven-year project in which a railway line is being built to link the city with the capital, Lhasa, about 400 kilometers to the west.

If that were not enough to convince you that something is afoot in Nyingchi, a high-grade road connecting it and Lhasa is now being built that, when completed within the next couple of years, is expected to halve the present travel time of 10 hours.

What these monuments to human engineering have in common is that they will inevitably help nourish a blossoming tourism industry seen as a ticket out of poverty for many of the city's 230,000 inhabitants.

Basum Lake is renowned for the bluish-green water that gives it its name and the lush vegetation of the surrounding land. Photos by Liu Xiangrui / China Daily

Nyingchi is special for its ethnic groups, such as Tibetan, as well as Lhoba and Menba, which are among the smallest ethnic groups in China.

Even before adding ingenuity to the mix in this quest for a better life, Nyingchi, about 3,000 meters above sea level, is well ahead of the game, endowed with rich natural resources and well known for its superb landscape, natural wonders, historical sites and biological diversity.

The majestic Namjagbarwa Peak, lush Lulang Forest, Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon - the longest canyon in the world - and Basum Lake, which holds a special place for the religious, are just four of the jewels in its fine crown.

The area is also special for its ethnic groups, such as Tibetan, as well as Lhoba and Menba, which are among the smallest ethnic groups in China.

"We are developing the economy around tourism and aim to associate all industries, all departments and every citizen with that," says Tenzin Sangdrub, director of the local tourism department.

Last year during the peak season, more than 10,000 visitors a day arrived in Nyingchi, proportionately akin to 1 million people descending on a big city like Beijing each day.

Over the year, the local government says, it spent 1.32 billion yuan ($195 million; 170 million euros; ￡149 million) on more than 80 tourist projects, the likes of rural inns, restaurants, infrastructure and tourist villages. The aim is to ensure that the area's poorest people have a direct share in the spoils of an economic windfall that such projects can deliver.

The size of that windfall is evident in the billion yuan that the local government says tourism attracted last year.

One of the attractions that helped pull in that money was the Basum Lake area. The lake, whose name means green water, is in the highlands, 90 kilometers west of Kongpo Gymdo county in Nyingchi. It covers more than four square kilometers and lies at an altitude of more than 3,700 meters.

Far from the hustle and bustle of towns and cities, Basum Lake is renowned for the bluish-green water that gives it its name and the lush vegetation of the surrounding land. Basum is also a holy lake for the Nyingmapa school of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the oldest such schools.

If the meditative life is not your cup of tea, outdoor activities such as mountain biking and hiking competitions have been introduced in recent years, and the Basum Lake attraction is applying to become a 5A-level tourist spot, the highest level recognized by the Chinese tourist authority.

Over the past two years, the local government has spent nearly 200 million yuan upgrading infrastructure and other aspects of the scenic area, and that investment seems to have paid off handsomely, the attraction bringing in 18 million yuan in revenue last year.

The Basum Lake Tourist Development Co, which runs the tourist spot, says it employs nearly 40 people from several villages who work as guards, cleaners and lake cruise skippers.

Gesang, 28, from the nearby village of Cuojiu, is a cruise skipper and says he earns about 2,500 yuan a month.

"Working for the tourist company is relatively easy, so many people want to join," says Gesang, who used to be a farmer.

His parents still depend on farming for their livelihoods but, given the influx of tourists, his family has plans to start a rural inn.

The Basum Lake scenic spot's developer pays seven villagers, including their annual bonuses, each year from the scenic spot's annual profits.

With the growth of tourism, a large range of agricultural and sideline products, such as home-raised pigs and matsutake mushrooms collected in the forest, have a ready market.

"Thanks to tourism, these things are being turned into cash," says Tenzin Sangdrub. The matsutake business has become an important source of income for villagers, he says.

In addition to the sale of tickets to scenic attractions, rural home inns and restaurants are generating a great deal of income and creating jobs.

Nyingchi is now believed to have about 540 rural home inns, and these housed more than 3 million tourists last year.

Over the past few years, rural inns have sprung up like mushrooms in Suosong village, deep in the Grand Canyon of the Yarlung Zangbo River, and on the back of that, the average annual income per capita in the village has reached 10,000 yuan, says Tenzin Sangdrub.

Pasang Norbu says, "Technology has made communication much easier, and we can draw on that to better promote our hotels and other products online."

Many villagers who offer accommodation are promoting themselves online and providing online booking, he says.

Norbu says that as tourism grows, transportation has improved continuously, even though roads need further upgrading to draw more tourists, particularly those with their own vehicles.

"The growth in tourism does not just mean more money. More importantly, it opens our eyes and exposes us to learning and exchanging with visitors from various places."

Nyima Chodron, 22, a college student who is studying in Liaoning province, says she has seen great changes in her hometown wrought by tourist development in recent years.

Her home village of Pai town is in the heart of the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon and right under Namjagbarwa Peak.

It used to be a poor, isolated village, but it has grown, particularly because of tourism, Chodron says.

A new road has been built connecting Pai town with Nyingchi, and although the trip still takes three hours while zigzagging over mountain ridges, this is much shorter than was once the case, and the road is much better than the old one, she says.

Some factories that process local organic agricultural products have been set up in her village, too, she says.

Chodron's family has opened a rural inn to accommodate tourists who flood in during peak season, and there are seven other such inns in the village.

"Because things have improved so much, I will definitely come back to work in Tibet after I graduate, and there will be many opportunities as tourism continues to grow," Chodron says.

High standards for ecological and environmental protection are being enforced to ensure that tourism is not detrimental to the city, Tenzin Sangdrub says.

In fact, villagers' awareness of ecological and environmental protection has improved as tourism has grown, says Gesang, the cruise skipper.

Nyingchi is renowned as a natural museum of vegetation types a gene pool of biological resources.

Earlier, many locals ignored regulations and cut down trees to make money, but 10 years ago authorities prohibited any form of deforestation.

Instead of hunting and cutting down trees, villagers now know how important it is to protect the wild animals and plants, and the local government has provided subsidies for each villager to compensate for their economic losses.

"You often see wild monkeys and other animals in the villages nowadays," says Gesang.

To better protect its natural resources, the local government has carried out many ecological projects, including encouraging and organizing local residents to join forestry promotion, preventing desertification and promoting gardening businesses.

Nyingchi has created nearly 22,000 ecological posts, such as forest rangers and forestation workers. Each of these workers, who are usually from poor families, can earn about 3,000 yuan a year from such jobs.

liuxiangrui@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/21/2017 page1)