Recently, I saw a report about "Baqing County fully promotes economic and social development", and I couldn't help but think of the past three visits to Baqing County, northern Tibet and feel the new changes.
In 2021, I accompanied the volunteer service team of the Plateau pickup truck of Beijing Construction and Tibet Aid Workers Association to Baqing County, one of the three eastern counties of Naqu City, Tibet Autonomous Region, which I have been away from for many years, and distributed the Plateau pickup truck of cow dung to the herdsmen.
This is my third time in Baqing County. The biggest feeling is the incomparable surprise of the huge changes that have taken place in this land!
Baqing County belongs to the Nagqu area (now Nagqu City ), located in the eastern part of the northern Tibetan plateau , and the upper reaches of the Nujiang River. The terrain here is high in the north and low in the south, with an average altitude of more than 4,500 meters.
Baqing , in Tibetan, means "big tent", because a large cow-haired tent that can accommodate hundreds of people was once built here.
Now, when you walk into Baqing County, what you see is no longer the mud road on the mule and horse road that people think of, but a flat and wide asphalt road.
But before the peaceful liberation of Tibet, there was no one mile of road or a car in Baqing County, and transportation was carried by people and animals.
After the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the road from Naqu through Baqing County to Changdu (i.e. Heichang Highway), ending the history of Baqing without roads.
drive to Baqing County on the road, I saw that the hardened asphalt road here extends to remote pastoral areas. On both sides of the road, new Tibetan buildings rose from the ground, and colorfully decorated private cars, tractors and many motorcycles passed by our eyes from time to time...
This is the former residence of Bude, the "Prairie Hero" (photo provided by Tang Zhaoming)
I first learned about Baqing County from "Prairie Hero" Bude . It was from January 15 to 23, 1988, and the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region was held in Lhasa. During the interview, I met Bude, who had always worn sunglasses, and was deeply moved by his deeds.
Time dating back to January 6, 1959. A group of rebels surrounded the Hongqi Forest Farm in the northern Tibetan grassland. The enemy was large and we were few, and the situation was critical. The young worker Bude broke through and sent a letter to the People's Liberation Army, but unfortunately fell into the clutches of the rebels. The brave Bude was tied up by the rebels. He lowered his head and chewed the information hidden in his chest into his mouth. The rebels gained nothing, so they dug out Bude's eyes alive...
This is a photo of Bude with his family during his lifetime (a photo of Tang Zhaoming)
After the reform of Tibet, Bude served as deputy director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Baqing County, and was cordially received by many party and state leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. He was awarded the honorary title of "Grassland Hero" by the Central Military Commission.
In 1990, I came to the hometown of Bude, the "grassland hero". That is because from November 26, 1989 to April 1990, more than 160,000 square kilometers of land on the northern Tibetan grassland were hit by 126 heavy snow. More than 160,000 people in eight counties (offices) including Baqing, Jiali, Nagqu, for example, Bangor, , Wen and other places in Nagqu area were surrounded by heavy snow, and nearly 4 million cattle and sheep were struggling on the brink of death. The mountains and fields were covered with corpses of various livestock. Cattle and sheep that survived by luck were struggling to chew on the frozen hard flesh on its similar corpses. Once upon a time, cattle and sheep also became carnivorous animals.
This is a shepherd girl in Baqing County who refed hungry young animals during the snow disaster to reduce the losses caused by the natural disaster of (photo taken by Tang Zhaoming in 1990)
As the livestock fell one by one, the cattle and sheep that cared for the hope of the herdsmen instantly disappeared, and the herdsmen's heart was broken...
An emergency telegram came from the disaster area, and it was quickly sent to Nagqu, Lhasa, and Beijing. Through radio and newspapers, the news of the snow disaster spread throughout the country.
Immediately, the capital Beijing called and the central government sent transport aircraft airdrop materials for disaster relief. On March 27, the silver eagle spread its wings on the northern Tibetan Plateau and threw necessities such as tsampa , highland barley , fuel, clothing, and snow glasses to the herdsmen surrounded by heavy snow. In a few days, the Central Committee ordered two Black Hawk helicopters to be put into intense disaster relief work.
This is the rescue helicopter is landing in the disaster area of Baqing County (photo taken by Tang Zhaoming on March 26, 1990)
As a photographer at Xinhua News Agency's Tibet Branch, I took one of the "Black Hawk" helicopters from Lhasa to interview the disaster area of Baqing County, and went to visit the "grassland hero" Bude.
Although Bude's eyes cannot see, his heart is bright. It is said that he lives in the village and rides a magical horse on weekdays. He goes from the village to the county to work, and never gets lost. There is a river in front of the village, and there is no bridge on the river, so Bude paid for a bridge himself. Apart from a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses, Bude is no different from an ordinary herdsman.
In 1997, I came to the hometown of "Prairie Hero" Bude for the second time. That's because I was invited by China Tibet magazine to go to Tibet to take pictures of the album for "62 aid projects", including the construction project of Baqing County Hydropower Station .
In the 1990s, the central government and provinces and cities across the country carried out 62 aid projects again after 43 aid projects in the 1980s, once again making northern Tibet and even the entire Tibet play a brilliant music for modern economic construction.
Review of 62 projects, and we have to mention the construction of three counties of hydropower stations in Baqing, Shenzha and Nie Rong on the northern Tibetan Plateau. The completion of these three hydropower stations not only ended the history of local people's ancestors relying on ghee lamp lighting, but more importantly, it has brought huge changes to the local economic development.
I was delighted to see on the northern Tibetan Plateau that the lights in many people’s houses were on, new cultural facilities were available in many places, and many students moved into new classrooms...
According to reports, on September 10, 1994, the Baqing County Hydropower Station project built by Jilin Province started construction. Jilin Province sent the most outstanding construction team to the Baqing County Hydropower Station construction site for construction.
This is the staff at the computer room of Baqing County Hydropower Station. The hydropower station was built by Jilin Province (photo taken by Tang Zhaoming in 1997)
From 1994 to 1995, it happened to encounter a rare heavy snow disaster in the history of Nagqu area. The snow was falling thousands of miles north of Tibet, and the frozen layer was more than 1 meter. In order to ensure the construction period and construction quality, the Jilin Construction Team boldly adopted artificial heating and the addition of antifreeze and successfully produced qualified concrete. To this day, the scene of workers cloaking in snow and fighting on the construction site is still deeply imprinted in the memories of the local people.
In August 1995, the Baqing County Hydropower Station was completed. This power station has the shortest construction period, only 10 months, and is called "Jilin Speed" by locals; this power station has the lowest cost, saving 27.35% of the original design funds, but it has no effect on the quality at all. It is also called "Jilin Quality". After the completion of this power station with an annual power generation of 3.8 million kilowatt-hours, it solved the production and living lighting electricity consumption in the entire county, laying the foundation for the economic revitalization of Baqing County. Baqing County's fiscal revenue was only a few thousand yuan in 1993. After the power station was built, it jumped to more than 300,000 yuan in 1995, achieving good economic benefits, so people also called it "Jilin benefits".
This is the volunteer service staff of the Beijing Tibet Construction and Aid Tibet Workers Association in Baqing County to guide herdsmen to install plateau pickup trucks (photo taken by Tang Zhaoming on September 14, 2021)
In 2021, I came to the hometown of "grassland hero" Bude for the third time. That was when I accompanied the volunteer service team of the Plateau pickup truck for the Beijing Construction and Tibet Aid Workers Association to distribute the Plateau pickup truck to the herdsmen to pick up cow dung.
This is a corner of the newly built collective market in Baqing County (Tang Zhaoming took on September 14, 2021)
This time I was excited to see in Baqing County that in recent years, Baqing County has combined regional advantages and based on its resource endowment, and has taken strengthening the Baqing yak industry as an important means to promote the high-quality development of the economy, and has taken the breakthrough point for strengthening the Tibetan pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, it has vigorously developed handicrafts and walked the path of "promoting industries with resources and promoting development with industries".
At present, there are 9 planned photovoltaic power generation bases in Baqing County, namely the photovoltaic site in Gangche Township, Baqing County, and the photovoltaic site in Gongri Township, etc. The planned total investment is 25 billion yuan and the planned total installed capacity is 5,000 megawatts.Focusing on the "six major industries", Baqing County has made reasonable arrangements, optimized and upgraded the industrial structure, and planned to build a number of locally suitable plateau characteristic biology, clean energy, cultural tourism industry, green industry, modern service industry, digital economy and other industries, and at the same time promote the upgrading of the animal husbandry industry and expand the clean energy industry.
In recent years, Baqing County has also actively carried out road construction, reasonably laid out urban and rural infrastructure construction, making transportation accessibility stronger, and effectively promoting rural revitalization work. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Baqing County's transportation infrastructure investment totaled 2.27 billion yuan, all 10 townships built asphalt roads and put into use, a total of 56 villages were implemented in the smooth flow of established villages, and 25 other small transportation projects were included, with 505 kilometers of roads renovated, and the township smooth flow rate was 100%.
This is a new look in Baqing County Middle School (photo taken by Tang Zhaoming on September 14, 2021)
In addition, since 2003, the annual junior high school academic achievement test scores in Baqing County Middle School have ranked among the best in Nagqu City, and were awarded the National Advanced Group for Education System in 2019. In order to promote employment, in 2021, Baqing County also carried out 1,522 skill training for farmers and herdsmen, achieved 8,465 transfer employment for farmers and herdsmen and increased their income by 72.06 million yuan, and held the first 2021 Baqing County Farmers and Herdsmen Vocational Skills Competition and other activities.
Three visits to Baqing County left a deep impression on me. This is a vibrant Baqing County, a northern Tibetan grassland full of hope and vitality. (China Tibet Network Text, Photo/Tang Zhaoming)
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