China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990
Official says Tibet has nothing to hide
March 11, 2010
At a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Standing Committee of Tibet Autonomous Regional People’s Congress, said, "As always, we welcome tourists, journalists and government officials to visit Tibet and take a look there to better understand the region’s current situation."
Commenting on Tibet’s regulations on foreigners’ access to the region, Qiangba Puncog said Tibet is "a very special place" due to its "high altitude, its inconvenient traffic" in addition to other limited conditions.
Tibet will improve its infrastructure and public services to cater to the tourist boom. Padma Choling, chairman of the Tibet autonomous regional government, said. "Tibet received 5.61 million tourists last year, compared with 2.2 million in 2008.
"We are glad to see more tourists are coming ,which is an impetus for the development of Tibet."
China Daily reported that Padma Choling said that the local government will step up efforts to improve public services and tourist environment, as well as the protection of culture relics and natural environment, to cope with the changes brought by the tourist boom.