Landlocked village benefits from Tibetan tourism
Print Edition
TIBETAN innkeeper Phuntsog describes his family hotel as the “dwelling place of the immortals.”
His business card displays a beautiful scene of his hometown: two-story Tibetan houses surrounded by green pastures with a full moon against a snowy mountain in the background.
Phuntsog’s home village is Tashigang, located in Lunang Township in Tibet's Nyingchi Prefecture, with an average altitude of 3,300 meters. It is near “China’s most beautiful thoroughfare,” a 5,476-km-long highway that runs from Shanghai to Zham on the China-Nepal border in Tibet.
As tourism booms in Tibet, the remote, landlocked village has received a growing number of sightseers, particularly backpackers in search of scenic, lesser-known attractions. Tashigang Village, hidden among craggy snow-covered mountains and evergreen forests, is home to only 311 people from 68 families. The village has become a major stop on many tourist itineraries.
In 2015, 20.2 million tourists visited Tibet. Tourism revenue topped 28 billion yuan, 15 times more than a decade ago. The flood of tourists has become a gold mine for the villagers, and Phuntsog was among the first to try his luck in the hospitality industry.
Phuntsog, born in 1950, never received any formal education. He learned to speak Mandarin only after China’s reform and opening-up drive began in the late 1970s, when tourists started arriving at his hometown. “There was little access to traffic, so I offered tourists rides on horseback and told them everything I knew about the land,” Phuntsog said.
Fascinated by the landscape, many tourists asked him if they could stay for a couple of days. “There were no hotels anywhere near the village, so I said they could stay with my family if they did not mind,” said Phuntsog.
In 1998, he opened the first family hotel in the village, a small, traditional Tibetan house with eight beds. He charged 70 yuan (about US$10) a day for three meals and a bed. The price was low and negotiable when lodgers were short of cash. In one extreme case, a guest paid only 10 yuan a day.
The guests love Phuntsog, who is friendly and always ready to help.
Once a guest forgot his video camera in the hotel room. Without a car or motorbike at hand, Phuntsog hiked to town to return it to him. He keeps everything that is lost and unclaimed, including clothing, cameras, handbags and cash.
“I hope their owners will eventually come back and get them,” he said.
Phuntsog became a member of the Communist Party of China at 62. “I feel compelled to live up to my obligations and lend a helping hand whenever I’m needed.”
He shares his experience with fellow villagers who have followed him into the hotel business. “We have all benefited from Tibet’s tourism boom,” he said.
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