Herders to hoteliers: China brings millions of tourists to Tibet

In a room warmed by an open wood stove, Baima says her family converted their white-brick house into a hotel as China ushers tens of millions of tourists to Tibet.

Surrounded by mist-covered mountains, nearly 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the capital, Lhasa, and close to a disputed border with India, most of the houses in her remote village of Tashigang have followed suit and turned into homestays. "We used to live a life of herding and farming," the 27-year-old told AFP. "Then the government encouraged us to run a hotel."

The villagers - who speak the Tibetan language - have been given Mandarin classes to help them accommodate the Chinese guests whose arrival has boosted their income.

"Opening hotels is not as hard as herding," Baima said, from her home packed with ornate wooden furniture and brightly painted walls. Government officials looked on as she spoke.

Thirty-five million tourists flooded into the region last year, ten times the entire population of Tibet.

Waves of mainland travellers have flocked to the region, attracted by the scenery, air of mystique and multitude of new transport links. Many dress in traditional Tibetan outfits and pose outside cultural landmarks in the capital city of Lhasa.

Baima's hamlet has 51 family hotels, according to officials, tying the bulk of its residents to the tourism industry.

"The government organises cultural training, national common language training (and) catering industry training," party official Chen Tiantian told a crowd of reporters on the state-organised trip. "Now 80 percent of the people in the village can communicate in Mandarin," she added.

Baima's neighbour Cangjie, wearing an identical traditional dress with embroidered sleeves, said their lives have changed.

"With the arrival of outsiders, we are... exposed to new things," she said, pictures of the Chinese president Xi Jinping hanging from her walls.

Tashigang comes under the jurisdiction of Nyingtri city - a modern city called Linzhi in Chinese that is being dubbed an "international tourism area" by the government, pulling in eight million visitors last year.

"Our next goal is to strive for international tourists," said Hu Xiongying, from the managing Party group of Lunang tourism town - Lulang in Chinese - a neighbouring district that administers Tashigang.

A guide speaking to the media in the tourist town of Lunang.

A tourist posing for a picture at Jokhang Temple in the regional capital Lhasa.

A Buddhist monk at the Potala Palace - classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994 - in the regional capital, Lhasa.

Tourists riding horses at Namtso lake in Dangxiong county, known in Tibetan as Damxung county.

Villager Cangjie at her hotel in the village of Tashigang.

A tourist posing for a photographer next to Jokhang Temple.