By Philippe Massonnet
LHASA – Eight months after its historic opening the railway to Tibet has already brought economic benefits to the remote region, but detractors continue to see the new line as a tool for Chinese colonisation.
“I have returned home,” said Wang Ping, a few days after stepping off the the train as it arrived in Lhasa.
Wang, originally from the suburbs of Shanghai about 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) away, moved to Lhasa a year ago to open a small restaurant.
“The train ticket is only one third of the cost of an plane ticket,” he said as he took his son by the hand.
Wang is not the only one to arrive in Tibet seeking a new life. Many of Lhasa’s taxi drivers, most of whom are ethnic Han Chinese, see a good future on the Tibetan plateau.
“Everything is changing here very quickly, partly due to the train, and this is only the beginning,” said a 27-year-old driver who came to Lhasa last year with his wife and child from central Henan province.
For tourist agencies too business is booming.
“The number of our clients tripled in 2006 and this is thanks to the train,” said Luosang Caiwang, head of Saikang Travel in Lhasa.
“The train is great for us, and for the local population it is beneficial,” said the Tibetan, aged in his forties.
Luosang said both the economy and society in general had benefited from the railway as it had linked Tibet, formerly one of the most remote regions in the world, to China’s wealthy and developed eastern seaboard and helped break its isolation.
“About 60 percent of investment in the hotel industry is done by Tibetans,” he said.
For the government, the benefits of the railway are evident. Tibet’s gross domestic product grew by 13.4 percent in 2006, the highest level of growth since 1995.
But the authorities also acknowledge that the impact of the train – the highest in the world with parts surpassing 5,000 metres (16,500 feet) in elevation – is not only economic.
“It will promote cultural communication and religious harmony between Han (Chinese) and Tibetans and will advance the evolution of human civilisation,” said Ge Quansheng, vice director of Tibetan tourism at the ministry of railways.
According to the ministry, 700,000 travellers have taken the train to Tibet since the line went into service on July 1, 2006.
“We are expecting 1.3 million passengers in 2010,” Ge said.
Even local delegates to China’s rubber stamp National People’s Congress took the train to Beijing last week to attend the annual parliamentary session.
Of the passengers arriving at the Lhasa railway station, most are ethnic Chinese, including businessmen and officials, leading people in the Himalayan capital to comment on how the face of the city is becoming increasingly Chinese.
From the heights of the Potala Palace, the ancient home of a series of Dalai Lamas, Lhasa looks like any other Chinese city — and although it has yet to acquire the skyscrapers that dominate the more developed towns throughout the country, the current rate of development hints that a jagged skyline cannot be too far off.
According to the UN’s office in Beijing, three quarters of the homes in Lhasa’s historical Tibetan quarter have been destroyed in the last five years.
And the city is expanding. The road toward the airport is dotted with car dealerships. Beneath the snow-capped mountains are rows of concrete housing units draped with colourful prayer flags — and the five-star red flag of communist China.
According to official figures, Tibetans make up 93.5 percent of the region’s population and 87 percent of Lhasa.
Exiled Tibetans accuse the government of seeking to deceive the outside world and denounce the growing number of Chinese coming to the region as the economy grows.
The local government acknowledges that the official numbers do not include the “floating population,” but remains unclear about the exact extent of new arrivals.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, has recently argued that remaining part of the communist state is in the economic interests of the Tibetan people.
But he has also said: “We are opposed to the cultural genocide led by China through the Han population and the expansion of the Chinese language in Tibet.”
