16,000 nomadic households in Qinghai herded into fixed homes

(TibetanReview.net, Nov19, 2009)  China said Nov 17 that it still had 134,000 households of Tibetan nomads in 33 counties of Qinghai province remaining to be settled in permanent homes. So far, 16,000 households of such Tibetans had been moved into permanent settlements under a compulsory five-year scheme covering a total of 560,000 nomads, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency Nov 17.

The project’s total cost has been put at six billion yuan, with 800 million yuan having been already spent to settle the 16,000 households. The report cited Vice Governor Deng Bentai as saying the province would spare no efforts to move the remaining herders into permanent homes.

Qinghai makes up the bulk of the traditional Tibetan province of Amdo, also known as Domey. However, under current Chinese rule, while the Tibetan-inhabited area accounts for 97 percent of Qinghai's landmass, Tibetans make up only about a third of the province's population. According to the Xinhua report.