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Guarding Tibetan Heritage
Special> Guarding Tibetan Heritage
UPDATED: August 24, 2007 NO.35 AUG.30, 2007
The Gravy Train
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the highest rail in the world, was hailed as a miracle of engineering when it began running a year ago. Today, it is being hailed for the economic benefits it has brought to the once isolated region of Tibet
By LAN XINZHEN
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The increased flow of tourists has spurred the opening of home hotels run by Tibetan families. There are now around 40 home hotels, which in total provide over 2,500 beds, a figure that has doubled since 2005. Lobsang, the 44-year-old owner of a Tibetan home hotel, told Beijing Review that the number of guests accommodated by his hotel has doubled since the beginning of 2006. "The Qinghai-Tibet Railway should take the credit," he said.

Lobsang said 80 percent of hotels in Tibet are run by Tibetan people. He also said the railway had linked Tibet, one of the most backward regions in the world, with more advanced regions in China and stimulated economic and social development in Tibet.

Souvenir vendors on Barkhor Street, the oldest street in Lhasa and a must see for tourists, also find their business has never been better.

The opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has spurred a u-turn in the Tibetan economy from purely relying on subsidies from the Central Government to independent development based on local resources and industries. In the past, for every 10 yuan of local treasury expenses, nine yuan came from Central Government subsidies. Now officials in Tibet for the first time have begun to talk about gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Tibet.

According to Deng, Tibet's GDP grew by 13.1 percent in 2006 and by 14.1 percent in the first half of 2007. He said the autonomous region's government has set a goal for Tibet's per capita GDP to reach the national average level by 2010.

Environmental protection

"Look, the grass on the slopes of the rail base has taken root," said Jin Xiaoyi, a manager from the state-owned company in charge of building and running the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

Jin said that during the construction of the railroad, all the grasslands that were on the route of the rail were peeled and cultivated somewhere else. After the rail was completed, these grasses were moved back to decorate the slopes of the rail base. "This new trial is a complete success," Jin said.

According to Jin, not only the slopes of rail base have been fully covered in grass. After the completion of this project, an area within two kilometers of the rail was carefully checked for grass coverage and every gap was filled even if it had not been affected by human activity.

Passengers aboard a train from Xining to Lhasa can see that vegetation on the stretch of rail between Xining and Golmud, finished in the 1980s, is no comparison to that on the stretch between Golmud and Lhasa, where the line was completed in July 2006.

Along the rail between Xining and Golmud, people, vehicles and stretches of desert line the track. From Golmud to Lhasa, human activity can rarely be spotted and the vegetation is well preserved.

Jin, on his fourth train trip to Lhasa, said he had got used to seeing Tibetan antelopes grazing idly out of window. "I saw Tibetan antelopes and Tibetan yaks on my first trip to Lhasa and I was really excited by the scene. But I am no longer excited since I can see them on every trip, " said Jin. He said the flock of Tibetan antelopes on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau has grown bigger compared with 2001, when the construction of the rail section between Golmud and Lhasa began.

Every train entering Tibet consists of fully closed compartments, which means garbage and sewage can only be discharged from the train at Golmud or Lhasa station and not a drop of sewage is left behind on the rail.

All companies making investments in Tibet are strictly scrutinized by environmental protection agencies. In Tibet, routine environmental impact appraisals before the opening of factories are conducted by the State Environmental Protection Administration, which can deny the entry of any project based on environmental concerns. In other regions of China, this environmental impact appraisal is often carried out by local environmental protection agencies.

Deng said, "Economic development in Tibet can never sacrifice our environment."

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