Under towering mountains, cranes and newly built blocks of apartments stretch up to blue skies around the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, as a construction boom creates a two-tier system of property wealth between state workers and everyone else.
A huge infrastructure and building drive in Tibet has brought airports, roads, railways and new apartments, which Beijing says are improving life across the remote mountainous plateau.
However, the boom is also changing the historic Buddhist city and pushing property prices out of reach of many residents, Tibetans say, sharpening divisions in a region well-known for discontent under Chinese control.
Photo: AFP
A short distance from the Potala Palace, the former home of the exiled Dalai Lama, construction workers crawl over high-end condo towers being built by Chinese developer Country Garden. They are priced similarly to many major Chinese cities, despite average Tibetan incomes still being among the country’s lowest.
The development sits opposite billboards advertising other projects and near a modern new shopping center.
Agence France-Presse recently joined a rare and tightly controlled government-led tour of Tibet, which has heavily restricted entry for foreign journalists since deadly anti-China protests exploded across the region in 2008.
The Chinese government says development is the antidote to discontent in Tibet, where many people still revere the Dalai Lama — the region’s spiritual leader — and resent an influx of Chinese tourists and settlers.
Since 2008 it has poured investment into the region, making Tibet one of China’s fastest-growing regions economically and fueling rising average incomes.
Many residents agree such modernizations are welcome, but experts have warned that Lhasa’s 860,000 people are also increasingly polarized between haves and have-nots.
The building binge is perhaps the most visible evidence, seen as largely benefiting educated government workers, while Tibetan rural migrants struggle to keep up.
Nearly 1 million square meters of newly built housing was sold last year, up 28 percent from the previous year.
Real-estate listings show about three dozen new developments selling homes in Lhasa.
With prices rising, entering the market relies on public-sector jobs, “because there are very few options outside of that to make the big bucks,” said Andrew Fischer, a professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. “The property market opens up only once you’ve passed that gateway. That gateway is what controls people.”
Rural migrants are moving from other parts of Tibet to Lhasa to seek better economic and educational opportunities, but usually end up on society’s lower rungs, said Emily Yeh, professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Many have low Mandarin language abilities, a prerequisite for many urban jobs.
Even at the higher end, competition for top jobs is fierce as employment growth lags the numbers of new graduates.
Interviewing locals was difficult under the watchful eyes of government minders, but overseas Tibetans who are in close touch with those on the ground say a toxic social brew is developing.
“Most people who are educated work for the government, [but] you have increasing numbers of young Tibetans who are well-educated ... and didn’t get a government job,” said an overseas Tibetan who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He says this is creating a pool of educated youths unable to earn enough to buy homes.
Tibetans also told reporters that government workers face extra controls and pressure to shun their Buddhist faith, which they fear endangers their religious and cultural heritage.
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