Traffic jams are no longer rare in Lhasa, though they were beyond imagination only a decade ago. Streams of pedestrians, vehicles and information intertwine in Lhasa, a city gradually on a path toward modernization.

As the political, economic and cultural center of Tibet, Lhasa has seen a 16.6 percent annual GDP increase in the past five years,with its economic growth rate four percentage points higher than that for the whole region and a total economic volume accounting for one third of Tibet.

A recent report shows Internet users in Tibet have increased from dozens in 1998 to the present nearly 40,000. Rapid economic development in Lhasa has also attracted large numbers of people from outside the city, and it is now faced with overcrowding -- a common problem for all booming Chinese cities.

It was not many years ago that a car was considered a luxury beyond reach. A recent report issued by the Lhasa city government shows there are nearly 60,000 automobiles in Lhasa, and that one out of every 23 people in Lhasa owns a private car, a number five times the national average.

Deeply concerned about congestion, the regional government has increased its allocation to traffic issues. To improve the urban thoroughfare framework, the government has allocated 230 million yuan (about US$28.75 million) to construct a two-direction thoroughfare in the west suburb of Lhasa.

For most tourists, what attracts them most in Lhasa are the ethnic-colored culture and special landscapes. Lhasa received 2.63 million tourists in the 2001-2005 period, with a combined tourism revenue of 3.09 billion yuan (about US$386 million).

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2006)