Foreign media: Tibetan herdsmen optimistic about future
Foreign media has reported that the comfortable housing project promoted by the Chinese government is close to completion.
Dadrak is one of the tens of thousands of herdsmen living in the Tibetan inhabited areas of China. Dadrak his wife, two kids and 30 yaks live inside a spacious home near Kangding of Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China's Sichuan Province, Agencia EFE said.
The report said that Dadrak hopes that very soon, he would be able to accommodate tourists in his home with help from Sichuan Province’s Kangding Tourism Promotion Program. He would be able to receive 10% of the fees tourists pay for his family inn.
Manager of the comfortable housing project in Kanding said that the settling is voluntary, refutingthe claims that the herdsmenwere forced to move.
Dadrak was optimistic, he hoped to double his income after settling. Most of his current household income comes from raising yaks.
Dadrak is only one participant in the comfortable housing project . Introduced in 2003, the comfortable housing project has already helped tens of thousands of Tibetan shepherd families settle down in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Tibetan inhabited areas in Sichuan, Qinghai, and other parts of China.
As reported, the government said this program is in its final phase. The comfortable housing project in Tibet was completed in 2014.
Yeshe Dawa, governor of Garze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, said that the central Chinese government plans to invest 30 billion dollars in Garze in the next five years in order to realize this goal. There is less than one million residents in Garze, and 80% of them are Tibetans. He said the region’s development was supported by funding from the central government.
The local government gave a tour of an advanced hospital where all services are virtually free. Many of the patients are herdsmen. The hospital also had a college student training center with capacity for 5000 students; almost all of the students are Tibetan. Other programs supported by the central government were also showcased.