Height of ambition

A wealthier community

Luckily, his perseverance finally bore fruit. Apart from the road, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure were also built.

On Jan 1, 2008, all the projects were completed. Residents in the ancient village finally caught up with the modern world. It takes just over an hour to travel, by car, between Shangri-La and the Balha village. It used to take a week by foot.

The beautiful snow mountain is attracting an increasing number of tourists. His tourism company hired 300 villagers, improving annual family incomes from 2,000 yuan to over 100,000 yuan. In 2000, most villagers had moved out of Balha village and only 14 households stayed, but now 20 families have moved back.

Tsering Norbu, 29, is one of the university graduates that returned to the village after working for three years outside. He is now in charge of the branding section of Sonam Dondrup's company. Like many people in the village, he says Sonam Dondrup is a great hero who has suffered so much to help his people.

"Without him, poor families would have been left isolated. Even if they could have moved out, how could they live and develop? Now the company benefits 300 households in nearby villages," he says.

Tsering Norbu also points out that the government has been supportive with good policies and financial aid, by giving an amount of 150 million yuan as a subsidy for the development of the tourism industry.

Kalsang Tsering, 36, has been a guide in the tourist park since 2007.He says before the road was built, elderly people in the village did not know the outside world. He remembered when he was little, when people from other Tibetan areas came, he could not understand their language so that he thought they were Han ethnic people.

Standing on the terrace of an old three-story wooden house in Balha village, he says that the tracks through the woods that people once used to graze yaks and sheep have become an attraction for hikers.

"You can go directly to the foot of the snow mountain, which looks like a Buddha lying on his back from the left, and from the right hand side it has a natural pagoda-shaped peak," he says.

The color of the mountain changes throughout the year-yellow, green, red and white. In rainy seasons, the mountain is shrouded by fog and clouds. On sunny days, the first rays of sunlight shine on the snow mountain, he says.

"Before the road was completed, I wanted to leave, but now everybody wants to come to my hometown. I do not need to leave," he says, smiling.

"I am very satisfied with my life here. We used to be poor and backward, and when we went out, we felt ashamed because people looked at us strangely. Now since the road was completed due to our hard work, people come, so we are very proud of ourselves and our hometown," he says.