The trip, which began on June 10 in Nyingchi city in eastern Tibet, is taking participants through local villages, schools, hospitals as well as exhibition centers, for a closer look at the daily life and traditions of Tibetans.

 

In the remote village of Trashigang in Nyingchi City, visitors received a traditional Tibetan greeting with Hada ceremonial scarves as presented by local villagers. Most of the locals are engaged in the tourism industry and manage family hotels.

 

The business earns them disposable incomes averaging nearly 3,000 U.S. dollars a year, higher than the national average of 2,100 dollars for rural residents, based on 2018 data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

 

Professor Arvind Alok, chairman of Buddhist Monuments Development Council (BMDC) and director of Buddhist Academy in India, told CGTN that it’s a good start for locals to open up family hotels, which help generate family income, improve employment and bring benefits to young Tibetans, in particular.

 

In the nearby town of Lulang, visitors walked into a maker space, which serves as an incubator for local startups. It’s outfitted with modern technology and the internet of things, along with traditional Tibetan handicraft. Agita Baltgalve, an associate professor at the University of Latvia, is an avid fan of Tibetan Thangka painting. She highlighted a necessity to maintain ancient handicraft in the region.

 

And in Baji Village, they heard from locals about how upgrades in transportation can improve living standards; in their case, the launching of the National Highway 318 that passes through the village.

 

Patrick Kelly, a British expat living in Shanghai, works as the director of media and communication at Urbanatomy. He shared with CGTN that it’s always good to have government investment that trickles down to people. Kelly hailed the government’s move on infrastructure improvement as a good policy, which he reckons is working well in the rural community.

 

After spending two days touring around in Nyingchi, the group of visitors set off to Lhasa, capital of Tibet on June 12, along the National Highway 318. They were constantly amazed at the natural beauty of eastern Tibet with its thick vegetation set amid a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

 

On the same day, they joined elders at a nursing home in Lhasa. The government-funded facility offers free services to those who have inadequate family support. Among the 50 or so living inside the nursing home are disabled seniors and those with no living relatives. The facility, equipped with modern medical and living facilities, also offers paid services to those who wish to receive special care from other than their families.

 

Sonia Bressler, a French writer, reflected back on her first encounter with a similar nursing home away from Lhasa in 2012. She told CGTN that she had been delighted to see a second one in Lhasa on the current field trip, and she described it as a beautiful establishment catering to a necessary need.

 

The visitors were also invited to a local Tibetan hospital in Lhasa, which was founded in 1916 and where practitioners use traditional Tibetan medicine techniques like acupuncture and medicated baths to cure diseases.