Ethnic groups play their part in Inner Mongolia
Print Edition
Enktobxin, an ethnic Mongolian, is Party chief of Damao Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Born into a family of herdsmen, the 50-year-old, a former middle school teacher and principal, grew up under the Party’s ethnic policies to make a success of his studies and his career.
“My Mongolian name means peace. I have grown up in a peaceful environment,” he said.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the region, China’s first with a system of regional ethnic autonomy, conceived to foster equality, solidarity and prosperity among all ethnic groups.
Enktobxin spoke only Mongolian at school. He learned Mandarin at college and now speaks it fluently. He obtained a master’s degree in ecology from Inner Mongolia Agricultural University and a doctorate from Minzu University of China in Beijing.
Leaders of autonomous regions, prefectures and counties must be members of the relevant minority group and the governments must have a proper number of personnel from minorities.
In Damao Banner, 35 percent of Party and government officials come from minorities, Enktobxin said. Ethnic minority officials currently make up about 33 percent of the regional total.
“These officials maintain ethnic solidarity, social stability and ensure economic growth,” said Hao Shiyuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Inner Mongolia’s first high-speed railway — from regional capital Hohhot to Ulanqab — opened last Thursday.
A link between Baotou and Damao Banner’s border port with Mongolia will open soon, a new route for China-European cargo trains, which already pass through two other border ports in the region.
In Xiramuren, Damao Banner, 80 percent of 2,200 former herders now live off tourism. Grazing has been banned since 2008 to restore grassland ruined by overgrazing and drought in the 1990s.
Only 80 kilometers from Hohhot, the prairie has been a tourist spot for decades. A Tibetan Buddhist monastery is one of the main attractions.
Li Zhanfeng, 44, an ethnic Han, and his wife earn more than 100,000 yuan (US$15,000) a year renting 40 yurts to tourists.
Jobs for families
“We get along well with local Mongolians. They bring visitors here for meals,” said Li. To make more money, locals can set up yurts near their homes.
Dolingar, deputy head of the township, said 1.2 million tourists visited last year and many local people have bought apartments in Hohhot where they spend winter and spring.
In Wutugou, a village in the city of Ordos, former farmers set up a haulage company with more than 50 trucks mainly transporting coal.
This meant jobs for over 40 families.
There were 6 million poor people living in agricultural and pasturing areas of the region in the early 1980s. Now the number is just over half a million.
Ethnic education is receiving more financial support. Governments must hire no less than 15 percent of their staff from Mongolian language colleges each year.
Regulations protecting the prairie, Mongolian language and medicine are the backbone of ethnic autonomy.
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