70 years on, Tibetan autonomous prefecture marches towards modernization

XINING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- After quitting her job in an auto parts company in a big city, Yeshe Lhamo decided to return to her rural hometown in the plateau province of Qinghai in northwest China and opened a cafe two years ago.

Renowned for its localized product of yak buttered coffee, the cafe covering a floor area of 90 square meters has become a popular spot among tourists, bringing her a net profit of 20,000 yuan (about 2,800 U.S. dollars) every month.

"As the hope of my family, I used to study hard to break free from the confines of the mountains, but now, I have realized that my past efforts to leave were precisely to come back and build our hometown even better," said Yeshe Lhamo, 27, who hails from Maqen County, the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog.

Established in 1954, the prefecture, at an average altitude of 4,200 meters, is the highest in altitude among China's 30 autonomous prefectures for ethnic minorities, nestled deep in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.

The harsh environment, with steep mountains, vast grasslands, thin air and an average annual temperature of minus 4 degrees Celsius, made life difficult for the locals, who mainly relied on herding for a living and horses for transportation.

Despite the challenging natural conditions, the past 70 years have seen a remarkable turnaround for Golog.

The prefecture now boasts over 13,000 km of road, ensuring connectivity to every town and village. It also has an airport and expressways built in recent years.

Today, 205 ecological farming and animal husbandry industrial bases have been set up in the prefecture, starkly contrasting the days when locals lived a nomadic lifestyle.

Through industries like animal husbandry and tourism, the prefecture, with a population of 222,000, achieved a gross domestic product of 6.72 billion yuan in 2023, nearly a thousandfold increase since its early days.

The transformation from tents to apartments and from nomadic herdsmen to settled residents signifies Golog's journey from a state of backward feudal serfdom to thriving socialist modernization, said Ye Wanbin, head of the prefecture.

The progress was made with hard work. According to Zhou Wangzhong, deputy director of the prefecture's transport bureau, building roads here means digging tunnels in mountains and crossing permafrost areas.

"The construction workers had to endure the harsh conditions of high altitude. No matter how difficult, the roads must be built because they symbolize hope for prosperity for our herdsmen," Zhou said.

As the prefecture advances towards modernity, residents have placed unprecedented emphasis on education, with their children benefiting from improved school facilities and resources.

Ngoje Nyima, who leads a herding life with his two children in Bainma County, said that his greatest regret was dropping from school for herding. Now, he is determined to ensure his children receive a good education. "I want them to go to school and not follow the old path of herding," he said.

With assistance from Shanghai, as part of a national scheme in which developed eastern regions support less developed western regions, Golog has built new schools across the prefecture, with teachers coming from Shanghai to support the teaching efforts.

"In our pastoral area, the most beautiful architectures are mostly schools," said Qi Yaqiong, president of a primary school in Madoi County.

Over the past years, the school has received 21.34 million yuan for the construction of the teaching building, sports ground and other facilities, equipped with multimedia classrooms and plastic racetracks.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in late 2012, a total of 3.8 billion yuan has been spent on various educational infrastructure projects in Golog, resulting in the construction, upgrade and expansion of 135 schools at various levels, according to a press conference on the prefecture's 70th founding anniversary held in mid-July.

Students from families who were previously registered as poverty-stricken and later lifted out of poverty have achieved a dynamic zero dropout rate, and the long-standing issue of student dropouts at the compulsory education stage has been historically resolved.

"After I graduate from university, I believe my hometown will be even better, and I will choose to go to places where I am needed most, becoming a teacher," said Nedong Lhamo, a senior high school student.