Well-off life in border villages
By the end of 2021, the construction of all 624 well-off border villages in the Tibet Autonomous Region has been finished. Each administrative village has got access to electricity, internet, running water, and hardened roads; the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the masses have been greatly improved. All of these show a scene of prosperity, stability, ethnic unity and progress.
“Now we have access to electricity, and all electrical appliances can be used. Life gets much easier now.” Kyipa, a villager in Drenthang Town, Dingkye County, Shigatse City, said happily. In 2020, the Drenthang Town was connected to the home power grid, and the problems of power outages and voltage instability were solved.
“For us ordinary people, all development is connected to road,” said Tashi Tsering, a villager in Qarasa Village, Medog County. Following the opening of the Medog Highway in 2013, the second highway, the Pai Town-Medog Highway, was opened in May 2021.
In Yumai Township, brand-new dwellings have replaced the dilapidated low houses; the smooth roads bid farewell to the muddy past, and the goal of “patients with minor illnesses can be cured in the Township” has been realized, adding a guarantee for a happy life... After several years of construction, the once “three-person township” has become a well-off township with more than 200 people in 67 households, two administrative villages under its jurisdiction, and an annual per capita income of nearly 40,000 yuan.
The Sangngagqoiling Township is 110 kilometers away from Luntse County, Lhoka City, and belongs to the frontier agricultural township. In recent years, relying on the abundant forest resources, the township has developed characteristic industries to lift poor people out of poverty and become rich. In accordance with the model of “village committee + cooperative + the masses”, the township has invested to construct a tsampa processing plant with black highland barley, and a breeding base of Tibetan pigs. Products have been sold to Lhasa, Shanghai and other places.
With the support of a series of policies to strengthen borders, develop borders and enrich the people, Shama Village in Xia Zayu Town, Zayu County, Nyingchi City, has developed special industries such as soft-seed pomegranate cultivation according to local conditions, and greatly increased people’s income.
Yadong County in Shigatse City has the reputation of “Little Jiuzhaigou in the Himalayas”, and the Pagri grassland in Yadong County, with an altitude of 4360 meters, is one of the most fertile grasslands in Tibet. Herdsmen in the county make full use of the grassland to develop industries of Yak and Tibetan chicken, and have made a well-off living.