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Tibetan quake town rises from rubble
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FOUR years after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,600 people and flattened a Tibetan majority town on the Qinghai Plateau, new schools, hospitals, museums and squares have been built.
On April 14, 2010, the earthquake struck Gyegu, the economically backward capital of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province.
Residents have new lives due to an investment of 44.4 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion) in 1,248 reconstruction projects ranging from solar-powered houses and greenhouses to concrete roads, water plants and museums. Work was completed last October.
Pubu Chagxi used a flush toilet for the first time in his new house built by the government. It has a solar-heated floor and WiFi so he can access the Internet through his smartphone.
At first, the 36-year-old resident of Degya Village thought the toilet was strange, but now he appreciates not having to use an outhouse and understands that it’s hygienic.
Still, all the new facilities have not yet brought real benefits to the village’s 242 households. Although 144 vegetable greenhouses were built with government money, villagers have not mastered greenhouse farming. The village rents the greenhouses to farmers from other provinces.
Tsepamao (who like many Tibetans uses only one name) has been able to move his family of 12 into three, 80-square-meter, 2-bedroom apartments in Gyegu. Now the 62-year-old lives like an urbanite and faces urban problems.
Like rising living costs.
“In the past, we just used yak dung for heat, but now heating costs 3,000 yuan (US$491.80) a year,” Tsepamao says. The management fee is 700 yuan per year per apartment.
“We cannot even afford yogurt,” says Tsewang, another Yushu resident who moved into a new apartment. A 1.5-kilogram yogurt sells for around 100 yuan, almost double the price when he lived outside the city. He now lives with seven family members in a new, 120-square-foot apartment.
The new life is not easy for Tsewang, who is illiterate and earns a living by digging for caterpillar fungus, an expensive tonic in traditional Chinese medicine. His wife works at a supermarket. Their annual income is around 30,000 yuan.
Lack of professionals
High-tech products have improved the quality of life over the past 20 years, but once they break, they are useless since there’s no one to repair them, says Geleg Dargye, Party secretary of Degya Village.
“A broken switch or a solar panel requires technicians from the provincial capital to fix,” he says.
The Gyegu township water plant built by the Beijing government faces similar problems. The malfunction in a mechanical cable cause a 5-day water cut-off in March. Technicians from Yushu Prefecture could not fix it and experts had to come from Beijing to do the job.
The new Yushu Prefecture People’s Hospital is one of the best hospitals in the province, with 400 beds and more than 50 departments. China State Construction Co built the 180 million yuan facility, completed in October 2012.
Staff numbers only 252, but it needs an additional 600 people to meet demands, according to Pema, head of the Yushu Prefecture Health Bureau.
“The central government has given us top facilities, but we lack top talents,” he says.
Lack of professionals also plagues the education sector.
China invested 2.1 billion yuan to reconstruct schools in the prefecture, but there’s a shortage of teachers. The prefecture has 175 schools with 71,678 students and 3,509 teachers. Another 480 teachers are needed, says Tamdrin, head of the prefectural education bureau.
“The three-year reconstruction has built a new Yushu. Only by taking advantage of the hardware can we live up to the potential,” says Wu Dejun, deputy Party secretary of the Yushu Prefecture Committee.
Yushu has been partnered with Beijing in a 10-year assistance program to provide technical know-how in urban management, education, medical treatment and culture, says Wu.
Beijing regularly sends experts in maintenance, drinking water, drainage and sanitation to the prefecture to build an urban management system.
Yushu is 4,000 meters above sea level and contains two national nature reserves, Sanjiangyuan, the cradle of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, and Kekexili, home to several endangered wildlife species, including Tibetan antelope.
Liu Lizhi, head of the prefecture tourism bureau, is confident in developing Yushu into a top tourist destination for scientific exploration, photography, Tibetan Buddhism pilgrimages and environmental protection.
Yeshe Sumpa, who formerly worked for an environmental NGO, has quit his job and started a shop selling souvenirs from Southeast Asia to support his family.
“Since so many people have moved into new apartments, I have confidence in my business,” he says.
Around 200 meters from his shop is the new tourist center.
“When tourism booms in Yushu, I can do something about environmental protection again,” he says.
(Xinhua)
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