Ecological civilization makes gains in Tibet

Tibet's Nyingchi City has gained some success as an ecological civilization trail pilot in China, officials said on Tuesday.

The city government's latest survey shows that more than 85 percent of its commercial sites and more than 75 percent of its residents use solar water heaters.

Known as a "Green Land of Tibet," Nyingchi is about 400 kilometers from Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, and was ranked as one of China's first batch of ecological civilization trail pilots in 2014.

Nyingchi has four regional level ecological counties, 38 township level ecological towns, and 336 village level ecological villages, local officials said.

Main rivers, lakes, wetlands, forests, water ecology and geological relics, and biodiversity all get proper protection,” said Xiao He, the vice mayor of the city.

Xiao said his city has set environmental protection as a priority with any enterprises entering the city, and the city has decided to expand its economy by developing tourism, farming, hydrogen power station, Tibetan medicine and culture.

"We will work hard to transform the favorable ecological conditions into economic advantages," said Xiao.

The five above-mentioned industries generated revenue of 2.86 billion yuan in 2015, and the figure accounted for 27.5 percent of the city's GDP.

Located in southeastern Tibet autonomous region, Nyingchi is the gateway to Tibet from the provinces of Yannan and Sichuan. It borders Lhasa in the west and shares a boundary with India and Myanmar in the south.

Nyingchi means 'the throne of the sun' in the Tibetan language, and it is one of the important cradles of ancient Tibetan civilization, which has been settled as early as 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.