Fourth, Eastern Tibet on the Rise

By Carolyn Garcia  |  2012/05/16 09:41 Posted in Economic overview Overview of Chamdo Qamdo  | 

Economic overview Overview of Chamdo Qamdo
Qamdo lies in the east of Tibet. It is the east gate to Tibet Autonomous Region, located in the valleys of Jinshajiang River, Lancangjiang River and Nujiang River of Henduan Mountains. It is also in close proximity to Sichuan in the east, bordered in the south by Yunnan, Qinghai in the north and in the west Nyingchi and Nagqu. Its total geographical area is 18,600 square km, governing 11 counties, 168 villages and towns so far. Its total population is 544,600 (1997) with Tibetans accounting for 98.3 percent, Qamdo is abundant in resources and beautiful in scenery. With enormous economic potential, the prospect for its development is extremely broad. The mines of which the reserves have been calculated are up t0 37 kinds and located in 96 places. Also there are 23 places of large-scale mineral deposit, 24 places of medium-sized mineral deposit. As an enriching section of China’s hydro energy, the reserves of the hydro energy resource are up t0 40 million kilowatts. There are various kinds of wild animal resources and most of them are precious and rare in the world.
       
The economy of Qamdo is centered on the farming and animal husbandry. The main crops are highland barley, winter wheat, spring wheat, pea, rape, radish, Chinese cabbage, potato, etc., and the livestock arc yak, ox, goat. sheep, pig, horse, donkey, mule, etc. With construction of over 50 years, the industry and commerce of Qamdo has been developed in a certain scale and such industries have been formed as coal, electric power, agricultural machinery, cement, light industry, building materials, leather, worker, printing, brick and tile, food processing, national medicine processing, etc. In addition, there are many township enterprises, such as carpet weaving mills, gold and silver, ironware processing factories, national craft, etc. The rural industry and commerce
has already become the important component of rural economy. The value of rural industrial output of Qamdo was 9,420,000 yuan and that of rural construction output was 2 1,490,000 yuan in 1997. Although the development of modern industry started very late in Qamdo with a very weak foundation, it has developed from scratch and expanded gradually. The value of industrial output has already been up to about 340,000 yuan. The national handicraft industry and commerce have been the industry that has brought pride to the economy of Qamdo. It has a very important position in the autonomous region, e.g. the rural commercial output value accounts for l/5 0f the whole district and the traditional trade ethics of Tibetans in Sichuan and Yunnan has already trained the commercialism of the people of Qamdo.
      
Qamdo Town, a well-known city in the canyon of intersection of Zhaqu and Nagqu, has brand-new outlook, e,g. spacious roads, quickly running taxies, tall buildings, modern telecom facilities and cellular phones used by the your19 men and women…All these invariably suggest the bright future of Chamdo.
    
Yulong Expected to Soar
The Yulong copper mine discovered in 1966, lies within the area of Qingni Cave of Jiangda county, which is located in the northern part of Ningjing Mountain, the watershed between Jinshajiang River and Langcang River, 4,570-5,118 meters above sea level, thus it is the highest large-scale mineral deposit China have ever found.
      
The Yulong copper mine is an unusual large compound deposit with the porphyry copper mine and contact metasomatism (skarn type) copper mine. The mineral deposit – is composed of No. 1, 2 and 3 0re bodies covering 2.2 square km. The No. 1 ore body is the porphyry type copper mime with reserves of ore 520 million tons. The copper grade~ is 0.52 percent and the amount of metal of copper is 2,710,000 tons; The No. 2 and No. 3 0re body are contact metasomatism type copper mine with reserves of ore 169 million tons. Its copper grade is 2.33 percent and the amount of metal of copper is 3,790,000 tons; the average copper grade is 0.94 percent and the reserves of ore are 688 million tons with metal reserves being 6,500,000 tons. It is the copper mine with largest reserves in terms of individual mineral deposit China has ever found. According to preliminary feasibility study, copper mine resource of Yulong is reliable and the technological process is feasible. With fine water, electricity, traffic and other external conditions, the development is practicable.
     
The work for pre-development period has already been carried out with respect to the development of Yulong copper mine. In the 1970s, general survey and assessment were conducted. In 1988, relevant departments successfully carried out wet method to abstract the copper on a study and test basis as well as the indoor test and 400-ton heaps leaching in the open-air. In 1994, seminars on the development of copper mine at Yulong of Tibet were held successively. The participants have worked out the Planning of Development of Copper Mine at Yulong of Tibet and Preliminary Feasibility Study Report on Copper Mine at Yulong of Tibet, in which the resource conditions, external conditions, market prospects, development scheme, investment estimate and technical and economic evaluation, etc., have been studied in depth. The previous work has already been done with firm foundation, thus Yulong has laid a good foundation for further development.
        
The development of Yulong copper mine will drive the development of relevant infrastructure, such as energy traffic, and communication, promote the economic construction of Qamdo area effectively, advance industrial structure adjustment and change the weak industrial foundation  and the undeveloped state of the second and tertiary industry. Thus it will help form an open economy. Besides, the development of Yulong copper mine might contribute to the development of the big total porphyritic copper mine at Dorshia Sumdo, the bronze mine at Marlha Sumdo and forming the base of a super-huge copper industry. This will exert profound influence on the economic development of Qamdo and will make positive contribution to improving the economical operation and structure of Qamdo, and finally become the powerful motive force driving the economy of east Tibet.

 

Proposal for the “Three-Rivers Project”

By Carolyn Garcia  |  2012/05/14 10:01 Posted in All Tibetans know about the "Three Rivers Project."  | 

All Tibetans know about the “Three Rivers Project.” It refers to the agricultural development in the valleys drained by the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo, Nyang Qu andLhasarivers. It covers Nyingchi in the east, Ngari in the west,China’s western frontier, andNagqu in the north, including 18 cities and counties,231 townships, and l,890 villages, with a total population of 798,600, or 36.37 percent of the population inTibet. As the project area is the granary ofTibet, it is of vital importance to the region.

The “Three-River Project” began in 1989, when a contingent of 40 people–including 15 scholars in farming, forestry, animal husbandry, economics and computer science–went to the project area to undertake a six-month survey. On this basis, they worked out a blueprint for development in the area for the following 10 years. Projects covered commodity grain production bases, livestock breeding farms, vegetable farms, and light and textile industrial enterprises.  

The project lasted from 1991 t0 2000, and included some 220 projects. Major ones include:

Water works: Building 36 irrigation canals totaling 811 km in length, 12 reservoirs with a combined holding capacity of460 million cubic meters, six pump stations, four flood diversion projects, and three drinking water projects. They are expected to irrigate 70,000 hectares of farmland and 24,000 hectares of trees and grass.

Crop cultivation: Transforming 82,000 hectares of medium and low-yield farmland, reclaiming 6,700 hectares of farmland, and building some 30,000 hectares of high-yield farmland. The purpose is to set up 10 commodity grain and oil-bearing crops production bases, and 180 hectares of vegetable growing centers in Shannan, Xigaze andLhasa.

-Animal husbandry:  Planting 15,600 hectares of grass, reforming 60,000 hectares of grassland, setting up 180 hectares of grass seeds farm, setting up five  yak production farms, seven buffalo farms, four pig  and chicken farms.

-Forestry: planting 62,000 hectares of forests, setting up three tree seedling farms at the prefectural and  city level, and with total area of243 hectares, building four shelter tree belts on the banks of theYarlungZangboRiver, Nyang Qu River andLhasaRiver.

-Energy: Building five county-level hydraulic power stations with an installed generating capacity  of 10,400 KW, and five power substations; and popularizing the use of 50,000 solar energy stoves.

-Highway construction: Building the Zetang andDonggarBridgeacross theYarlungZangboRiver, and  1,000 km of rural roads.

-Science and technology: Building 14 experimental and exemplary zones, applying 28 technological items to production, expanding and renovating 21county agro-technological stations, 22 vet and grass supply stations and 20 forestry work stations, and training 500,000 people technologically.