Tibetannet

Konchok used to live in a remote mountain area in Kargang Town, Gyanmda County, Qamdo City of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. In 2018, Konchok's family moved into a two-storied house in Dase Village of Kargang Town. 

Like Konchok's family, over 30 impoverished families also received the key of their new house in the resettlement site built under the local government's relocation plan. Besides providing free houses for these impoverished families, the local government also established a cultural industry base, creating jobs for them. The cultural industry base was built with the 6.3-million-yuan (938,070 U.S. dollars) investment from Wuqing District of north China's Tianjin Municipality, which paired up with Gyanmda County to help it cut poverty in Feb. 2017. The base has attracted several companies, as they could not only use the workshop freely, but also receive allowance for water and electricity fees from the local government.

Here, Konchok and other impoverished villagers work in Tibetan incense factory, Thangka painting factory, and Tibetan garment factory. Konchok now earns about 4,000 yuan (about 596 dollars) every month by making Tibetan incense. The Tibetan incense factory they work now boasts an annal sales revenue of more than 500,000 yuan (74,450 dollars), attracting more than 40 once impoverished villagers from nearby villages. Since 2017, Tianjin's Wuqing District has invested more than 45 million yuan (6.7 million dollars) to Tibet's Gyanmda County, helping more than 860 impoverished villagers increase income. In Feb. 2019, the Tibetan government announced that Gyanmda County had risen above poverty.