Tibetans have substantially improved their living standard, with 85 percent of farmers and herdsmen living in new homes and all urban residents having a per capita living floor space of 20 square meters.
Last year, the per capita net income of urban residents in Tibet hit 6,448 yuan (776.86 US dollars), up 7.5 percent from the previous year. That of farmers rose 5.8 percent to 1,331 yuan.
Taking taxi is no longer luxury for residents in Lhasa, the region's capital city. With 140,000 permanent residents, the city has 1,100 Santana taxi cabs.
Tibet has highways with a total length of 24,000 kilometers. This, plus faster urbanization process, has paved the way for cars to enter ordinary urban Tibetan families.
In the past four years, the number of individuals buying motor vehicles has increased ten percent annually and that of private motor vehicles reached 10,385. Having a private car has become a vogue for young Tibetans. In sharp contrast, Tibet had only one car owned by the 14th Dalai Lama 50 years ago.
Cafe, bars, Internet bars, and disco halls have become popular for the young Tibetans. With optical cable lines laid to remote villages, televisions, telephones and Internet have come into ordinary families in rural and pastoral areas.
(Peopls' Daily 05/15/2001)
