Changing Life

People live better life in Xinjiang

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-21 17:09

BEIJING - People in Xinjiang are enjoying easier travel, better housing and power supply, according to a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council here Monday.

A Uygur woman picks grapes

A wide range of transportation vehicles available has made travel much easier and faster, said the white paper on "Development and Progress in Xinjiang."

In the early 1980s, it took nearly one week to travel from Urumqi, the regional capital, to Beijing by train. Now it takes only three hours by air, the report said.

The length of paved road per 10,000 urban residents was 1.6 km in 1978, 4.5 km in 2000, and up to 15.7 km in 2008.

Every 10,000 urban residents in Xinjiang had 3.1 buses in average in 1978. The figure increased to 13.2 in 2008.

Housing conditions have also greatly improved. A rural resident lived in an averaged space of 10.2 square meters in 1983. It rose to 17.25 square meters in 2000, and 22.79 in 2008.

The figure in cities increased from 11.9 square meters in 1983 to 27.3 square meters in 2008.

Now 97.86 percent of Xinjiang's urban population have access to tap water and 87.18 percent in county seats.

About 89.33 percent of people in cities have access to cooking gas, the rate is 66.67 percent in county seats.

In cities and towns the rate of centralized heating is 51.2 percent, the rate of sewage treatment 68 percent, and the rate of treatment of domestic waste is 16 percent. The urban green-coverage is 30.49 percent, the vegetation-land ratio is 26.19 percent, and per-capita public green area is 6.94 square meters.

According to the paper, in recent years, reasonably priced clean gas has become available to more than 300,000 households in 23 counties and cities in southern Xinjiang, including Korla, Hotan, Kashi, Artux, Aksu, Moyu, Lop and Shule.

The number of household gas users in southern Xinjiang keeps growing by 1,000 every month. The felling and burning of poplar trees for household fuel has become a thing of the past.