Folk tour appeal

Tsamcho, a 37-year-old villager from Tashigang, has been running a homestay with her husband for the past 12 years.

"Tourists are curious about traditional Tibetan folk activities like horse riding and archery. They like to dress up in Tibetan costumes and take photos, and enjoy local Tibetan dishes," she says.

The family has about 30 yaks, and some guests would feed the yaks and milk them with the couple.

Tsamcho's family were used to making a living by farming and herding but their income from the homestay business was about 400,000 yuan last year.

With the government upgrading the roads, she says there are more tourists than before due to the easier accessibility. Tsamcho's family financial status has seen obvious changes since 2013 due to the increasing number of visitors.

"The preferential government policies for Tibetans, especially subsidies and basic medical insurance, have increased our incomes and prevented us from being impoverished if we fell ill," she says.

In 2011, the central government established a subsidy program for grassland conservation in Xizang. The subsidies are provided to farmers and herders whose grasslands are under the grazing ban, or to those who have cultivated improved varieties of grass or raised better breeds of livestock.

Tsamcho says her family members have broadened their horizons and learned how to enjoy their lives. Their situation has greatly changed both emotionally and materially.

Every year, her parents, who are in their 60s, like to travel to popular domestic destinations such as Beijing and Chengdu with their friends from the village. Before the family's homestay business began, her parents never had spare money for holidays.

With a forest coverage rate of more than 80 percent, Lunang has been dubbed "China's Switzerland "for its majestic landscapes. In 2017, the Lunang International Tourism Town was opened under the major pairing-aid project with Guangdong.

"The tourism town's traditional Tibetan-styled architecture and ecology appeal to tourists," says Hu Xiongying, an official from the scenic area. Originally an official from Guangdong, he has worked in Xizang for eight years to assist the region.

He says the scenic area aims to be an ecotourism hub in the region, with a well-designed layout of buildings, lakes and wetlands.

The tourism town attracted 828,500 tourist visits in 2019. The original target last year was to hit 1 million tourist visits, but only half of that target was achieved due to the COVID-19 outbreak early last year.

Since trips outside of the country are still restricted due to the global pandemic situation, Hu believes that more Chinese tourists will choose destinations in China's western regions such as Xizang, Gansu and Qinghai for sightseeing and unique ethnic group cultures.

"Xizang's advantages as a destination are its rich ecotourism resources and culture," he says. "But it's a high-altitude region at the early stage of tourism development and related infrastructure should be improved."