Xinmin week | The skies of Tibet

This is the sky of Tibet. This is the sky of China.

The author | Zhu Guoshun

　　At 10:16 a.m. on May 16, another "Heavenly Road" Paimo Highway in Tibet was connected in its entirety, and Metuo County, the last one in China to open a highway, had a ring line in and out of two highways, which greatly facilitated metuo's travel. The connection of the Paimo Highway also added a joy to the 70th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet a week later.

　　Metuo was the only county in China that did not have access to roads for a long time, and so far there is only one low-grade highway to go there, and the road surface is narrow, and it has to implement "single and double number restrictions". The newly connected 67.22 km Pai Mo Highway connects the Pai Town of Milin County in Nyingchi City with the Beibeng Township of Metuo County, which not only allows Metuo to have a second highway, but also forms a ring line with the first highway, and the road mileage from Nyingchi to Metuo is shortened from 346 km to 180 km, and the traffic time is shortened from 12 hours to 4 hours.

　　The Paimo Highway is extremely spectacular, most of which winds on the ridge at an altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 meters, hanging between the green mountains and blue sky, like a colorful exercise falling from the sky. Due to the barrier of mountains and the complex terrain, the construction of this "sky road" is very difficult, and the four-level highway standard, Huaneng Group has invested more than 2 billion yuan in tibet assistance funds, and excavated a 4.8-kilometer-long Duoxiongla Tunnel at an altitude of more than 3,500 meters above sea level. Construction began in April 2014 and is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with the result 228 days ahead of schedule.

　　The opening of the new "Heavenly Road" in Metuo has added the latest stroke to the great changes and grand plans of tibet in the 70 years since its peaceful liberation. It was the peaceful liberation of Tibet 70 years ago that enabled the Tibetan people to get rid of imperialist aggression and shackles, to experience the warmth of the big family of the Chinese nation more deeply, and to open the latest and most beautiful picture in the sky of Tibet.

　　The Tibetans are important members of the big family of the Chinese nation. China's vast territory was jointly pioneered by all ethnic groups in China, including the Tibetans. Like many other ethnic groups, the Tibetans have fulfilled their glorious responsibilities in the process of creating and developing the great motherland. The Ninth Panchen Lama Erdene once said: "The original Tibet was established in China, and since the Han and Tang Dynasties, the relationship has become deeper and deeper." This gradual process, which followed a long river of history, accelerated significantly during the Tang Dynasty and was officially completed by the middle of the 13th century AD.

　　In 1644, the Qing Dynasty established the capital of Beijing to unify China and exercise sovereignty over Tibet according to historical conventions. In 1727, the Yongzheng Emperor officially established a minister stationed in Tibet to handle Tibetan affairs. After the Opium War of 1840, Tibet, like the rest of China, entered a period of devastation. After the imperialist forces invaded Tibet, Tibetan society became increasingly complex. In old Tibet, serf owners such as officials, nobles, and monks at the upper levels of monasteries, who accounted for less than 5 percent of the population, occupied almost all of Tibet's arable land, pastures, and most of their livestock. Serfs, who exceeded 90 percent of the population of old Tibet, could be disposed of as private property by the serf owners at will, and could be bought, sold, transferred, gifted, paid off, and exchanged. In 1950, Tibet had a population of 1 million, of which 900,000 were without housing.

　　After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central People's Government decided to adopt the policy of peaceful liberation in the light of Tibet's history and actual conditions. The Central People's Government has repeatedly informed the local government of Tibet to send representatives to Beijing to discuss the peaceful liberation of Tibet. After the liberation of Qamdo in October 1950, in April 1951, the local Kashag government of Tibet sent representatives to Beijing for negotiations. On May 23, 1951, representatives of the Central People's Government and the local government of Tibet reached an agreement on a series of issues concerning the peaceful liberation of Tibet and signed the "Seventeen-Point Agreement" for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. The agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet was endorsed and supported by the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet. The signing of the agreement completely smashed the imperialist delusion of splitting China and Tibet, safeguarded the reunification of the motherland, and consolidated national defense. After the democratic reforms of 1959, Tibet entered an era of rapid development.

　　In 1959, Tibet's per capita income was only 142 yuan. In 2020, the per capita disposable income of residents in Tibet reached 21,744 yuan, an increase of 11.5% over the previous year, of which the per capita disposable income of urban residents reached 41,156 yuan. In the past, Tibet, where mountains were blocked and transportation was inconvenient, not only had aviation and railways connecting the motherland in all directions, but also the construction of highways was changing with each passing day, and even the "only Metuo County that did not have access to roads" that was mentioned in geography textbooks for many years now has two highways, and the latest connected "Heavenly Road" Paimo Highway is a vivid portrayal of the great changes in Tibet.

　　In May 1991, I set foot on Tibetan soil for the first time to participate in the coverage of the 40th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet. The Boeing 707 took off from Chengdu early in the morning and immediately entered the snow-capped Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The blue sky and rolling snow fields have left a deep impression on me and every first-time tibetan. The plane arrived at Gonggar Airport, 90 kilometers from the airport to the city, the black high-grade road winding to the sky, the roadside is the turquoise Brahmaputra River, above the mountains, the blue sky seems to have just been washed, crystal clear.

　　This is the sky of Tibet. This is the sky of China.

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