As living standards improve and the pace of life picks up, more and more herdsmen in the northern and western areas of western China's Tibet Autonomous Region are opting to use automobiles to do business on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.

Nyima and his brother Samzhub, who live in Ngari, a region famous for its ample borax and salt in western Tibet, buy goods in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and sell them in their hometown.

"We buy a lot of fashionable clothes, and drive them to Ngari and sell," said Nyima.

Nyima and Samzhub lived only on herding before, working from sunrise to sunset. With their new truck, their options for making money have expanded.

"We have more flocks and herds than before, but we are still short of money, earning only 800 yuan (about 96US$) per year. It is not easy for us to turn livestock into cash," said Nyima.

So he and his younger brother got the idea for their new business, in spite of a prejudice that herdsmen are not good at commercial activities. Nyima said he is very satisfied with his increased income.

"By buying general merchandise in Lhasa and selling it in Ngari, we can earn 4,000 or 5,000 yuan (US$480 or 600) with each trip."

The brothers sometimes drive to Pulan County, an important border town, to deal with the Nepalese.

In the past, it could take several months of hardships and solitude for local people to carry salt on the backs of their herds from Ngari to India or Nepal.

"I inherited my business from my grandfather, but will never suffer the hardships people had to experience before," said Soico, a herdsman in the Nagqu region of northern Tibet.

Today, with Tibet's rapid economic and social development and the construction of major highways, trucks, decorated with the Tibetan "good luck" design of "Ba Jixiang," can be found fully loaded with livestock, borax and daily general merchandises shuttling among mountains and rivers on the plateau.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2002)