Western China - news and development

[JSCh]

Across China: Villagers embrace new life after relocation in Xinjiang
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-14 19:53:03|Editor: ZX

URUMQI, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- For Qimarhan, a 71-year-old woman living in the city of Hami in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, this winter comes without toil.

She used to live in a mountainous area without paved roads, tap water or electricity, and during the winter, she had to chop logs and keep three stoves burning all day in order to keep warm.

Three years ago, Qimarhan and about 500 households in the mountainous area were relocated to a resettlement site in Hami, and her new house is equipped with electric floor heating.

"Now I just need to flip a switch to keep warm," Qimarhan said.

To fulfill the mission of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020, China has been helping impoverished people move from mountainous regions to resettle in places with better natural environments and living conditions.

Xinjiang set the goal of relocating a total of 169,400 people to new houses built with government subsidies in five years from 2016 to 2020. The last batch of residents was relocated in early December.

Qimarxan's village, called by locals as "Happiness Village," is one of the resettlement sites that features public services such as electricity and heating, as well as supporting facilities.

The red-roofed, yellow-walled houses are built near a public square where residents can do exercises. There is also a kindergarten and a senior-care facility.

The village is now home to around 1,600 people from different ethnicities, and the villagers celebrate each other's traditional festivals together.

The local government has been helping the new residents find jobs. "We have contacted nearby orchards, industrial parks, and restaurants to help recruit new residents," said Yang Yanjuan, Party chief of Dongjiao development zone in Hami where the village is located.

Nurtun Aksopa, a former herder in the village, and his family earned 7,000 yuan (about 1,003 U.S. dollars) to 8,000 yuan each year from herding. Now, everyone in his family has a job, earning over 40,000 yuan per year.

"For those who still want to keep livestock, we are setting up a cow farm and introducing milk companies to help villagers improve techniques and boost sales," Yang said.

Aksopa said he is happy with his new life as it was very inconvenient to go to hospitals or access education back in the mountainous areas.

"My family members who were ill missed the best time for treatment since it took so long to get to the hospital," Aksopa said. "Now, things have changed."

 

[JSCh]

Breathtaking view of Sichuan-Tibet Highway in SW China
Dec 6, 2019
New China TV

Breathtaking view of Sichuan-Tibet Highway in SW China, an artery linking the plateau region with China's inland areas

 

[JSCh]

Tibet to set up Shigatse economic development area
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-19 14:49:52|Editor: ZX

LHASA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's Tibet Autonomous Region will set up an economic development area in Shigatse, local authorities confirmed.

The regional government officially approved the establishment of the Shigatse Economic Development Area on Dec. 13, aiming to create an important platform for the Belt and Road Initiative and cooperation between China and South Asia.

The economic development area will be located in the southern part of the city of Shigatse, about 50 km away from Shigatse Airport. Covering over 34 square kilometers, a total of 60 billion yuan (8.57 billion U.S. dollars) is expected to be invested into the construction of the area, of which 30 billion yuan will be invested in infrastructure.

Industries in the area will include logistics, organic agriculture, science and technology manufacturing, ethnic handicrafts, financial services, trade and exhibitions.

Bordering Nepal, Bhutan and India, Shigatse is an important gateway for China to South Asian countries.

In 2018, Tibet's total foreign trade volume reached 4.8 billion yuan, of which Shigatse contributed over 80 percent.

 

[JSCh]

Villagers live a better life after relocation in Xinjiang
Dec 23, 2019
New China TV

As weather gets colder, 133 villagers in Aratax, a remote village at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have moved into their warm and modern new houses

 

[JSCh]

Program rids Tibet of extreme poverty
Source:Global Times Published: 2019/12/23 15:22:31

19 counties and prefectures represent milestone in alleviation efforts

Tibetan people celebrated their "Fairy Festival" on December 12, 2019 in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Photo: China News Service/He Penglei)

All counties and prefectures in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region have now been lifted out of extreme poverty, reaching a significant milestone in the region's poverty alleviation efforts, the regional government announced on Monday.

The regional government said 19 counties and prefectures, such as Gyangze county in Xigaze, Markam county in Qamdo, can now delete the title "poverty-stricken" from their profiles, according to a document sent to the Global Times by the Tibetan regional government.

This signals that all 74 counties and prefectures in the region have shaken off extreme poverty.

Tibet, a place deemed as the most difficult to get rid of extreme poverty, now achieved a huge progress in this arena and moved one step closer to meet the country's goal of lifting the entire population out of extreme poverty by the end of 2020, Zhu Weiqun, a former head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told the Global Times.

Zhu, who has long-term and first-hand experience of Tibet's poverty alleviation work said the government has laid out measures for different places to become rich.

For instance, Markam county was encouraged to make use of their abundant grape resources to develop relevant industries and this successfully helped all its 206 extreme poverty-stricken families to shake off poverty in 2018, China Central Television (CCTV) reported in September.

Hinterland villages in Shannan Prefecture started to bolster their tourism services. Some 49 out of 66 families in Mamacun village of Shannan work in tourism and the villages' per capital disposable income reached 19,000 yuan annually ($2,710), CCTV said.

A resident of Nyemo county told the Global Times that farmers and herdsmen benefited most from poverty alleviation and learned skills such as handicrafts. They used modern technologies to sell their products online and gained education opportunities.

Ngabo Jinyuan, president of Tibet's association of industry and commerce, said that private enterprises also played an important role in assisting poverty alleviation and boosting employment.

Altogether 703 private companies registered to take part in Tibet's poverty alleviation system, investing 2.32 billion yuan ($0.35 billion).

In 2019, more than 82,000 people were lifted out of extreme poverty and the association helped more than 800 university graduates find jobs in Tibet, said Jinyuan.

Another effective measure was to support poor students' education, said Zhu.

Both the central and regional governments issued preferential policies to relieve poor Tibetan students' economic burden from elementary education to university, Pu Zhengxue, an official from Tibet's office of poverty alleviation and development, said in a conference in November.

"Tibet has poor natural conditions, but the poverty alleviation achievements are quite rich," said Pu.

"Most importantly, poverty alleviation spread the warmth of the central government to all ethnic groups in this region and pulls close the public with the Party and officials," Pu said.

Southern Xinjiang, Tibetan autonomous prefectures in Northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai provinces and some areas in Southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan were also deemed as most difficult places to shake off extreme poverty.

A total 48 extreme poverty-stricken counties in Yunnan got rid of extreme poverty from 2013-18, China News Service reported in August. Gansu vowed to lift all of its extreme poverty-stricken counties including cities and prefectures out of extreme poverty by 2020, Xinhua reported.

Hu Yuwei also contributed to the story

 

[JSCh]

Herders resettle in southern Tibet
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-25 07:53:27|Editor: zh

Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2019 in the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River, shows new houses built for herders migrating from Shuanghu County, Nagchu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

 

[JSCh]

Upgraded power grid benefits about 9m people in Xinjiang
Xinhua | Updated: 2019-12-31 15:08

URUMQI - A total of 2,481 poverty-stricken villages in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have had their power grid upgraded since March 2018, according to the State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd.

Thanks to the efforts, 8.91 million residents from 2.64 million households in the villages in Southwestern Xinjiang, including prefectures of Hotan, Kashgar, Aksu and Kizilsu Kirgiz now lead a happy life with stable power supply.

Power supply used to be unreliable as a result of poor infrastructure in the villages.

The company launched a power grid construction and upgrading project in poor areas in Xinjiang in March 2018, including the aforementioned villages, in a bid to bring about positive changes in those areas.

Over the past 21 months, the company has built up or renovated power infrastructure, including 27 110kv electrical substations, over 700 km of 110kv transmission lines, 25 35kv substations and 35kv transmission lines with a length of over 400 km, according to corporate sources.

 

[JSCh]

Love on the Roof of the World: Growing up with Tibetan Orphans
Dec 31, 2019
CGTN

On August 1, 2019, a group of volunteers with the project named "Growing up with you" set off from Beijing to Lhasa in Tibet Autonomous Region. They were on a mission and their endeavor was unique: organizing a flash mob with Tibetan orphans at the Potala Palace square to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The week-long rehearsals were an exercise in discipline and commitment, and opened a window into the lives of Tibetan orphans and the reality of their situation. Through candid moments and one-on-one interviews with orphans, their caretakers and volunteers, this documentary shows a side of Tibet you've never seen before.

 

[opruh]

In China no matter which province, none is left behind, everyone is getting prosperous.

 

[JSCh]

New rice strains offer brighter future for nomadic herders in Xinjiang
By WANG XIAOYU | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2020-01-03 09:39

Photo taken on Sept 26, 2018 shows rice crops ready for harvest in Qapqal Xibe autonomous county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

Large swathes of barren salty land in Akto county, in the southwest of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, were close to worthless for members of the nomadic Kirgiz ethnic group.

However, this year more than 660 hectares of saline-alkaline soil are being cultivated with new rice varieties that can tolerate high salt concentrations in soil, putting the nomadic herders on track to embrace a more secure way of life.

The area planted with such rice strains in Akto will eventually be expanded to about 6,667 hectares to diversify sources of income for the traditional herders and foster the development of a production model that combines herding with farming, said Mi Tiezhu, deputy director of the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center, which is based in Qingdao, Shandong province.

Akto is just one of many regions across China pinning their hopes on saline-alkaline tolerant rice to transform arid, salty areas into productive rice fields, and the prospects for scaling up cultivation of the advanced rice strains have never been brighter.

Nationwide, about 1,300 hectares of experimental fields sown with the resilient rice strains have averaged yields of nearly 6 metric tons per hectare, crossing the threshold that determines if total profits gained from selling rice can balance out production costs, Mi said.

"In addition to the expanding fields in Xinjiang, in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the Tumd Left Banner of Hohhot and the Hanggin Banner of Ordos will each see nearly 10,000 mu (667 hectares) of salty land being planted with the highly tolerant rice seeds this year," he said.

The two banners－similar to counties in terms of administrative level－are home to thousands of hectares of saline-alkali soil.

Trial planting on a smaller scale will also be carried out in South China, including Beihai in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, to test the tolerance of rice strains in infertile soil in coastal areas.

"From the very beginning, our goal has been to achieve commercialization of the technology, and the improved average output is a key determinant and will accelerate commercial production in the future," Mi said.

The average output has already outstripped goals set three years ago by renowned Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping.

During the Fourth International Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Forum held last week in Sanya, Hainan province, Yuan, who is also a chief scientist of the R& D center, lauded the progress.

"Crops planted in test fields in Dongying, Shandong province, are capable of yielding as much as 11.99 tons per hectare," he said.

"In Taizhou, Zhejiang province, the average output was about 10 tons per hectare despite an onslaught of typhoons.

"The momentum of improvement is truly miraculous."

To further facilitate use of the new rice strains, research into effective processing and sales methods that will help maximize profits for farmers is also underway.

"The age-old image of one lone laborer tending to small parcels of land is no longer applicable," Mi said.

Applications to agriculture authorities for certification for several saline-alkaline tolerant rice strains are in the pipeline.

Mi said about three to five strains are expected to be approved early this year, meaning "more people and enterprises can access this innovation".

 

[JSCh]

Guangdong to send teachers to support Xinjiang, Tibet
Xinhua | Updated: 2020-01-03 19:59

A student learns Mandarin at the No 2 Primary School in Zepu county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Oct 25, 2010. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

GUANGZHOU -- South China's Guangdong province will send 390 teachers to the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the southwestern Tibet autonomous region to support their education sectors.

The teachers will begin working in local middle and primary schools in spring and stay there for one and a half years.

The efforts are part of the government program to meet the demand for qualified teachers in the regions.

Guangdong authorities previously sent 290 teachers to the regions in the first phase of the program.

 

[JSCh]

Record number of swans spotted in Xinjiang wetland park
Jan 4, 2020
New China TV

A "swan lake." A record number of swans have been spotted at a wetland park in China's Xinjiang, thanks to efforts made by the local government to convert farmland to natural habitat

 

[letsrock]

Herders resettle in southern Tibet
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-25 07:53:27|Editor: zh

Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2019 in the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River, shows new houses built for herders migrating from Shuanghu County, Nagchu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

1000 kilometers? thats huge. what is the need to move that long.

 

[JSCh]

1000 kilometers? thats huge. what is the need to move that long.

I don't really know, but Tibet autonomous region is about the size of three times California, and the population is about 3 millions. Therefore it is very sparsely populated. It is not unusual to travel long distance from one population area to another.

5,000 meters altitude is very harsh for human, especially for older folk. This is a recent development in where they are moving from,

World's highest county connected to China's state grid
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-24 18:51:39|Editor: zh

Aerial photo taken on Dec. 24, 2019 shows a view of Tsonyi County, Nagqu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The world's highest county, Tsonyi, Nagqu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, was connected to China's state grid Tuesday, enabling a stable power supply for more than 7,000 local residents. In the county seat with an altitude of more than 5,000 meters above sea level, power workers braved a coldness of minus 20 degrees Celsius to start the equipment on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

LHASA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- The world's highest county, Tsonyi, Nagqu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, was connected to China's state grid Tuesday, enabling a stable power supply for more than 7,000 local residents.

In the county seat with an altitude of more than 5,000 meters above sea level, power workers braved a coldness of minus 20 degrees Celsius to start the equipment on Tuesday.

"Tsonyi relied on photovoltaic power stations to provide power for the whole county. But in bad weather such as heavy rain or snow, when sunshine was not sufficient, the whole county suffered a power outage," Jing Qi, deputy county chief of Tsonyi.

There are 10 months of long winter in Tsonyi, with the lowest temperature reaching minus 40 degrees Celsius.

Jing said the county used to adopt power rationing in winter, which disrupted daily work and life.

In March, the State Grid Tibet Power Co., Ltd. began to lay power lines towards the county, passing through a vast stretch of unpopulated Changtang National Nature Reserve.

"The power line construction is very efficient in providing Tsonyi people access to a stable power supply in winter," said the project manager Tsering Badro.

The power grid construction was completed with a government investment of 600 million yuan (around 86 million U.S. dollars). Two 110 kV and two 35 kV power transmission and transformation projects were built during the grid construction.

 

[letsrock]

I don't really know, but Tibet autonomous region is about the size of three times California, and the population is about 3 millions. Therefore it is very sparsely populated. It is not unusual to travel long distance from one population area to another.

5,000 meters altitude is very harsh for human, especially for older folk. This is a recent development in where they are moving from,

World's highest county connected to China's state grid
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-24 18:51:39|Editor: zh

Aerial photo taken on Dec. 24, 2019 shows a view of Tsonyi County, Nagqu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The world's highest county, Tsonyi, Nagqu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, was connected to China's state grid Tuesday, enabling a stable power supply for more than 7,000 local residents. In the county seat with an altitude of more than 5,000 meters above sea level, power workers braved a coldness of minus 20 degrees Celsius to start the equipment on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Sun Fei)

LHASA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- The world's highest county, Tsonyi, Nagqu City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, was connected to China's state grid Tuesday, enabling a stable power supply for more than 7,000 local residents.

In the county seat with an altitude of more than 5,000 meters above sea level, power workers braved a coldness of minus 20 degrees Celsius to start the equipment on Tuesday.

"Tsonyi relied on photovoltaic power stations to provide power for the whole county. But in bad weather such as heavy rain or snow, when sunshine was not sufficient, the whole county suffered a power outage," Jing Qi, deputy county chief of Tsonyi.

There are 10 months of long winter in Tsonyi, with the lowest temperature reaching minus 40 degrees Celsius.

Jing said the county used to adopt power rationing in winter, which disrupted daily work and life.

In March, the State Grid Tibet Power Co., Ltd. began to lay power lines towards the county, passing through a vast stretch of unpopulated Changtang National Nature Reserve.

"The power line construction is very efficient in providing Tsonyi people access to a stable power supply in winter," said the project manager Tsering Badro.

The power grid construction was completed with a government investment of 600 million yuan (around 86 million U.S. dollars). Two 110 kV and two 35 kV power transmission and transformation projects were built during the grid construction.

So they invested almost 100 million dollars on 7000 people which is close to $14000 USD per person just for electricity and still moving people out. It is very confusing.