Local residents pose for a photo in front of their new house in Gurum Township of Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, April 2, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhan Yan)

LHASA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Residents in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region have seen their living conditions significantly improved over the past decade, as the region has spent heavily on enhancing local housing conditions in both urban and rural areas.

In 2021, the per capita residential building area of Tibet's urban residents reached 45.62 square meters, 9.48 square meters more than that in 2012, Jiang Yuexia, deputy head of the regional housing and urban-rural development department, told a press conference held Sunday.

Meanwhile, the per capita residential building area of its farmers and herdsmen reached 40.63 square meters, 11.05 square meters more than that in 2012.

Over the past 10 years, the region poured nearly 1.4 billion yuan (about 197 million U.S. dollars) into the renovation and upgrading of 126 old communities, according to Jiang.

The region has also promoted the household garbage disposal mechanism in its rural areas and hired some 200,000 cleaners in villages.