“Medog was open to traffic 10 years ago. Highways connect 45 administrative villages in the whole county. In the past, we had to walk to Nyingchi for a week. However, it only takes one day from Medog to Lhasa. If you set off from Beijing by plane in the morning, you can eat the hot Stone Pot Chicken in Medog in the evening.” Norbu Yangzom, Deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Deputy Director of Medog Village Committee of Medog County, Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region, said proudly at the open panel discussion of the Xizang delegation at the Second Session of the 14th NPC on March 6.

As a grass-roots deputy to the NPC, Norbu Yangzom personally felt that great changes have taken place in Xizang in the last decade in the new era. The construction of the whole line of Sichuan-Xizang Railway has started. Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway and Lhasa-Nyingchi Expressway were completed and open to traffic. The “Fuxing” bullet train runs at a high speed on the snowy plateau. 5G network covers counties, districts, and key townships and towns. Optical fiber broadband, 4G signal, and broadcasting and television signals cover all administrative villages. Now, each household has access to water, power, roads, postal services, the Internet, and communication.

According to the introduction, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in Medog in 2023 was RMB23,026, higher than the national average level. Tourism, tea, non-timber forest-based economy, and other industries in Medog develop rapidly. 425,600 person-time of tourists were received in 2023. The people really live on “ecological tourism”. Alpine organic tea gardens of 19,000 mu (about 1,266.67 hectares) have been built. 250,000 kg of tea leaves were picked in 2023, increasing the income of people by more than RMB5 million. Meanwhile, non-timber forest-based economy such as Ganoderma lucidum and Dendrobium is developed according to local conditions.

Medog Village, where Norbu Yangzom lives, only has more than 800 people. The collective economic income of the village reached RMB3 million in 2023. She said: “Now the roads are open, living conditions are better, and our pockets are bulging.. Food, clothes, housing, education, and healthcare are guaranteed stably. The popularization rate of compulsory education is 100%.”