New horizon

Tourism grows in a part of Northwest China, driven by people who were once nomads. Xing Yi reports in Luqu, Gansu province.

The houses have been renovated and the rooms cleaned. The plates are heaped with roasted meat and the cups are filled with liquor made from highland barley. Once nomads in the Gannan Tibet autonomous prefecture in Gansu province, the residents of Luqu have now settled down.

During our recent visit, they are seen waiting for guests. The tourist season here is from late June through early September.

Gyakho has hosted some 20 guests this season. His home is about an hour by road from the prefecture's main city, Hezuo. His village Dangyingdao, which is under the administration of Xiahe county, is on the way to Labrang Monastery. When people visit Gannan, they usually go to the monastery, too.

There are hundreds of monasteries in Gannan, but Labrang is the largest and second oldest. First built in 1709, it is among the major monasteries of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. It is prominent for its teaching system - some 2,500 monks live and study in the monastery.

A cluster of large and small temples, covering 820,000 square meters, houses the monks, from teenagers who are the companions of the young Living Buddhas to those of 90-year-old lamas, says Jampal Gyatso, a monk who has been studying at the monastery for the past 15 years.

Gyakho's home is one of the 30 guesthouses in his village.

"A few days ago, two groups of Canadian visitors stopped by and they really liked my guesthouse," Gyakho says.

The renovation of his Tibetan-style guesthouse, with woodwork inside and bricks outside, was completed last year, when modern bathrooms were also installed.

He charges 50 yuan ($7) for a bed each night, and the deal includes breakfast. He expects more tourists to come in the weeks ahead.

People in Xiahe celebrate the Xianglang festival on the 16th day of the sixth month in the lunar calendar, which falls on July 9 this year. Starting from the week before, local people take tents, utensils and food to camp on the lush prairie. The festival also draws people from the neighboring provinces.

The scene is usually spectacular, according to the villagers.

The nearby Sangke prairie is a playground for activities such as horse riding and tug-of-war, with thousands watching the shows or simply enjoying the sun.

The festival originated from an old practice at the monastery when resident monks would camp out in the wild to collect firewood in the summer and store them for the winter.

"Xianglang" is pinyin for the original Tibetan word, which means "collecting firewood".

It takes two hours by road from Xiahe to reach Luqu. Gahai Lake, which lies in the southern part of Luqu, is the largest fresh water body in Gannan, covering 1,000 hectares at an altitude of 3,480 meters above sea level. On the way to the lake, via national highway No 213, once can see the Gaxiu village of Gahai township.

The first batch of nearly 100 nomads settled in this village in 2003, and now it is home to some 1,800 people, Soknub Dondrub, a local official, says.

Soknub Dondrub spent his college life at the Minzu University of China in Beijing, from 2004 to 2009. Back then, he was fond of the various cafes and bars in the capital, so when he became the head of Gahai township two years ago, he helped to build local guesthouses with different themes.

There are hostels with bunk beds for the young, guesthouses with yards catering to family travelers and tents for outdoor enthusiasts. In the youth hostel, a cafe bar offers milk tea and barley liquor, and a bed costs 18 yuan per night.

The village founded a company to run all the facilities to avoid a price war, and shares the profits among the villagers.

In 2016, the 20 guesthouses received 2,400 visitors, and they accommodated around 600 visitors earlier this month.

The village opened its own museum in May, showing with pictures and artifacts how nomads settled in this place.

The company sells local goods, such as caterpillar fungus, on e-commerce marketplaces like Zangbooo, featuring everything Tibetan.

The villagers still keep sheep and yaks - some 50,000 cattle, but they are testing out a smart grazing system with China Telecom. Each animal will be made to wear a band that has a position-monitoring component so that the herdsmen can see their cattle on computer screens and avoid frequent visits to the grazing pastures several kilometers away.

"In the olden days, my work was dealing with yaks and sheep, and now I deal with people every day," says Chopa Kyab, who works at the company. "But I like it."

Contact the writer at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn