National aid program changes social, economic landscapes in Xizang

A nation-wide campaign initiated three decades ago to mobilize resources on all fronts across the country to support the development of Xizang Autonomous Region has completely changed the economic and social landscapes of the region.

From July 20 to 23 in 1994, at the third national symposium on work in Xizang, the central government made a major decision of rallying national support for Xizang. Under the policy of pairing-up assistance for Xizang, 15 provinces and municipalities including Shanghai were designated to provide assistance to specific areas of Xizang.

Nationwide support for Xizang's development has delivered remarkable results. Between 1994 and 2022, a total of 11,900 officials and professionals were dispatched in ten groupings to assist Xizang. Coordination among provinces, cities and state-owned enterprises that assist Xizang has been intensified, and new models have been piloted in coordinated development, industrial cooperation, and management of paired-up assistance.

Efforts have been made to coordinate assistance in the forms of financial aid, technical support, poverty alleviation, and facilitation of industrial development and employment, as well as sending teams of medical and educational professionals.

"I went to Xizang in 1962, just before I turned 19. I spent 38 years in Xizang, during which the education in Xizang underwent a seismic change," said Ye Jing, former principal of Lhasa Experimental Primary School.

Zhang Yang was dispatched to Xizang in 2007 and served as the principal of Shigatse Shanghai Experimental School in the following two years. During the period, Zhang tried every possible means to help students enjoy better education.

"Faculty is the key to ensure that local children can receive good education. At that time, we invited teachers from Shanghai to come to Xizang to share their expertise with local teachers. Then I realized that it was not enough to just improve the education quality of our school, we should elevate the education quality of all schools in the region. So, I tried to send as many teachers in Shigatse as I can to Shanghai and Shandong to let them receive professional training, almost twice a year. By 2008, out of 11 students in the Xizang Autonomous Region who scored over 600 points in the high school entrance exam, nine were from our school," said Zhang.

On April 29, 2015, a powerful earthquake struck Nepal, killing more than 8,800 people. The earthquake also badly rocked Zhangmu Town, Shigatse's Nyalam County, and as a result, 40 out of 44 villages had to be rebuilt.

"We visited many villages and our top priority in the post-disaster reconstruction was to solve the problems that should be solved in poverty alleviation. We raced against time and worked around the clock, 24 hours a day, to carry out reconstruction. The entire county became a large construction site, and we spent nearly three years on it. It was until September 10, 2018 that our children finally returned to school. We held a grand ceremony to welcome students, and everyone burst into tears," said Tian Changqing, leader of the eighth batch of cadres to support Xizang fromYantai City, east China's Shandong Province.

By the end of 2019, Xizang had lifted 628,000 people out of poverty and delisted 74 county-level areas from the poverty list, accomplishing the historical feat of eradicating absolute poverty.

National aid program changes social, economic landscapes in Xizang

China's scientific expedition team on Thursday obtained critical ice cores during their investigation of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, which is known as Asia's "water tower".

The region encompasses "one glacier, two lakes and three rivers". It is home to Purog Kangri Glacier, the world's largest glacier in the mid to low-latitude regions, as well as Siling Lake and Namtso Lake, the largest and second-largest lakes in Xizang, respectively. It is also the birthplace of the Yangtze River, Nujiang River and Yarlung Zangbo River.

The climate in the region is complex and changeable, and its ecosystem is very fragile, and meanwhile it is a pivotal area for Xizang's economic and social development.

During their expedition, the team drilled for ice cores at different depths overnight on Thursday, aiming to capture climate records from different time scales.

Ice core drilling is typically conducted during the night and early morning when the ice temperature is sufficiently low.

Ice cores serve as vital records of global climate and environmental changes. The sediments and bubbles within these cores are clues to understanding the history of Earth's climate. By studying the bubbles captured in ice cores, scientists can analyze atmospheric composition, including carbon dioxide levels, over hundreds of thousands of years.

Yao Tandong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and leader of the expedition, and Lonnie Thompson, a renowned American glacier expert and foreign academician at CAS, conducted their scientific expedition on the glacier Thursday morning.

Through helicopter observations, thickness-measuring radar, satellite image comparison and other methods, the scientific expedition team has found that the surface area of the Purog Kangri Glacier has shrunk by 10 percent over the past 50 years.

The average altitude of Purog Kangri Glacier is 5,748 meters, with the highest point reaching 6,370 meters. Due to global warming, the glacier is melting rapidly.

"So does the melting of glacier surface -- the higher the altitudes, the less the ablation volume, while at lower altitudes, it accumulates and forms branch-like rivers on the ice surface. Currently, these branches extend up to altitudes of 6,000 meters," said Xu Baiqing, a research fellow of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the CAS.

Research indicates that the accelerated retreat of glaciers on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau over the past 40 years reflects a broader trend, and the melting rate of the Purog Kangri Glacier is relatively slow compared to the overall situation of the plateau.

The temperature changes within the glacier also attributed to the great difficulty of drilling, said Xu.

"Due to climate warming, the temperature within the glacier has risen, which suggests that under the same backdrop of temperature variations, the ablation may show abrupt shift with accelerating growth," said Xu.

The expedition was launched on Aug 18, 2024 and is scheduled to continue until October.

Scientists obtain critical ice cores during expedition in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau