Unique landscape and culture entertain tourists to Xizang

More than 1.5 million people visit autonomous region throughout May Day holiday

In the eyes of many tourists at home and abroad, the Xizang autonomous region is worth visiting at least once in a lifetime because this region boasts the highest plateau, highest mountain, deepest canyon, highest river and the highest palace in the world.

Nowadays, sightseeing is not the only option for tourists, especially those who want to experience local culture and life. Tourism authorities and operators' moves to integrate tourism with culture have made this aspiration possible and this has brought about a boom in the tourism industry.

Latest statistics from the Xizang Department of Culture and Tourism show that, during the May Day holiday, spanning May 1-5, the region received more than 1.56 million visits by domestic and overseas tourists, generating total tourism revenue of 1.12 billion yuan ($156.1 million).

In 2024, Xizang received 63.89 million tourist visits, an increase of 15.8 percent from 2023. The number of visits by overseas tourists surpassed 300,000, growing 188.2 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the number of visits by domestic tourists was about 63.57 million, up 15.5 percent. Total tourism revenue that year was 74.59 billion yuan, rising 14.5 percent from 2023.

The rich cultural tourism offerings greatly contributed to the May Day boom this year.

In Lhasa, the capital city of the autonomous region, a music festival was held to showcase traditional and modern music from seven cities across Xizang.

The city's Xizang Museum of Intangible Cultural Heritage held workshops for tourists to experience the making of Tibetan incense and learn to write Tibetan calligraphy works. In the booming commercial street of Barkor Bazaar, there were plenty of traditional Tibetan clothes, which visitors could try on when they took photos at the famed Jokhang Temple nearby.

Other experiences included tea farming and picking tours in Metog county, Nyingchi city, and a carnival featuring local ethnic customs in Gonggar county, Lhokha city.

Many tourists to Xizang noticed the integration of nature, culture and life, saying it is a remarkable feature of Xizang's tourism.

Peach blossoms

The peach blossom tour of the city of Nyingchi is a prime example of culture-tourism integration.

Every spring, peach flowers bloom in Nyingchi, where a signature peach blossom festival is opened, attracting tourists. This year's festival began on April 3 and lasted for about one month, offering a visual and cultural feast.

The village of Todan in Nyingchi's Dragyib district, home to hundreds of hectares of peach trees, is one of the subvenues of the festival.

Due to its vicinity to a high-speed train station, the village attracted many tourists this year. Many of them took pictures in the forests with a bullet train running on a viaduct as the backdrop. There were also folk custom experiences in the peach forests and on the grasslands, like shows of song and dance, and archery competitions.

Driven by the festival, Nyingchi's villages and townships with peach resources have seen rapid development of the rural tourism industry, and many local residents have benefited from this industry.

The village of Suosong in Manling county, sitting on the edge of the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon and facing the beautiful, snowcapped Mount Namjagbarwa, is home to numerous wild peach trees.

This village now has more than 50 family inns and bed-and-breakfast businesses operated by local people. In 2024, the village received more than 650,000 tourist visits and garnered a tourism income of 106 million yuan.

Villager Jigme Dorje is one of the inn operators. He said his has 30 rooms for tourists. "All the rooms have been reserved weeks before this year's festival," he said. "The peach flowers have become a precious asset of our village. This is something we didn't expect decades ago."

Salt fields

A tourist from Yunnan province, with the online name of Sweetheart Soft Cake, visited the city of Chamdo in the southeast of Xizang.

Chamdo is an important hub of the ancient Tea-Horse Road, a trade route that links Xizang with other Southwest China provinces like Sichuan and Yunnan.

In the city, she had a tour of the ancient salt fields in the Naxi ethnic township in Markham county.

Located at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and the Xizang autonomous region, Naxi township by the Lancang River is rich in the seasoning. Its salt production techniques are one of the oldest in the world and have been well preserved.

"The traditional salt production craft was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage item in 2008 and the ancient salt field was listed as a key cultural relic in 2013," she wrote in her online account on the popular social media platform of Xiaohongshu.

She learned that the rough terrain and steep mountains along the Lancang River limited farming. As a result, people in the township, as well as others nearby, would barter for the necessities of life, using salt as payment.

"Today, the situation is dramatically different, but villagers still produce salt using the ancient methods because it's part of their culture. Many people still want to buy the handmade salt," she wrote.

She wrote that the most spectacular salt fields are found along the river, resembling huge palettes on the cliffs.

She noticed that most of the work for salt production was done by women, despite the heavy labor. "Their faces are suntanned, but never lack bright smiles," she wrote.

Cultural center

Home to such landmarks as Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple, the city of Lhasa has been the center of Xizang culture for centuries. Therefore it is a must-visit destination for the majority of tourists to the autonomous region.

Cheng Heping from Shanghai had a tour of Xizang during the May Day holiday with his wife and son. Lhasa was their first stop.

After a day touring famous attractions in the city, they arrived at an open-air theater near the Lhasa River on the evening of May 2. They were there to watch the popular drama show of Princess Wencheng.

The show began with 16-year-old Wencheng, on her journey to Xizang, singing: "The alien land is somewhere faraway, the homeland is somewhere you have a home to return".

The drama tells the story of the marriage between Tang Dynasty (618-907) princess Wencheng and king of Tubo Songtsen Gampo. Tubo is the ancient name of Xizang.

The marriage led to close cultural exchanges and integration between Tang and Tubo, and eventually contributed to forming the unified, multiethnic nation of China that includes Han and Tibetan peoples.

After the 90-minute show, Cheng said this story would strike a chord in the hearts of every traveler.

"Life is a long journey. It's about growth, about fulfillment of missions. It is a journey returning to one's home, in both spiritual and physical senses," he said.

Tibetan Opera

Lhasa's neighboring city of Lhokha has also been attracting a growing number of tourists in recent years. The Yarlung River valley in Lhokha's Nedong district is said to be the cradle of Xizang's farming culture.

On one side of the valley stands Yumbulagang, the earliest palace in Xizang. King Songtsen Gampo and Princess Wencheng used it as their summer palace for several years before the king transformed it into a Buddhist temple.

On the other side of the valley is Tashi Cholden village, which is said to be the "first village of Tibetan Opera".

According to Nyima Tsering — a resident in Tashi Cholden and a nationally recognized inheritor of the Tashi Xoiba operatic genre — Tibetan Opera is a comprehensive art combining singing, dancing, storytelling and performing, with a history of more than 600 years.

"It was founded by famed Buddhist monk Thangtong Gyalpo in the 15th century," Nyima Tsering said.

"Thangtong Gyalpo had an ambitious plan to build bridges over the major rivers in Xizang. He founded Xizang's first Tibetan Opera troupe in Tashi Cholden village for the purpose of fundraising," he added.

The artist said that Tashi Xoiba, which is also referred to as Yarlung Xoiba, is the main genre of Tibetan Opera. Tashi Xoiba was included on the national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006.

Lhapa Yangdron, a villager of Tashi Cholden, was among the busiest people during the May Day holiday. She managed her B&B business by day and performed Tibetan Opera for tourists at night.

She said she has been performing opera for 38 years.

"I'm happy to see that Tibetan Opera is making a fortune for families in our village," she said. "Once it becomes a source of revenue, people are willing to learn this art and it can be passed down to future generations."

Since June 2020 when Tashi Cholden began to welcome opera tourists, the village has received more than 90,000 visits and garnered total tourism revenue of more than 8 million yuan over the past five years.

More than 90 percent of local families have engaged themselves in tourism operations. There are 80-plus B&B businesses with more than 700 beds on offer.

Just two weeks after the May Day holiday, various regions of Xizang celebrated the 15th China Tourism Day with a range of activities.

During a celebration in Lhasa's Norbu Lingka Park, Xizang's tourism authorities announced new measures to boost local tourism development, including reduction or exemption of entrance fees at certain destinations, and subsidies to tourists and tourism operators.

Local tourism operators believe that with these preferential measures from the government and their own incentive offerings in place, there will be a boom in the industry this year and in the years to follow.