Chinanews, Lhasa, April 2 - In the old days, "horses, knives and guns" were everything that herdspeople in Tibet could rely on , but today they like automobiles much better. "Most of my friends have private cars or jeeps, especially friends about my age," said Mima, a 30-year-old teacher in Lhasa Middle School.

 

"I like self-driving travel and taking pictures in the wild, thus I pay more attention to the performance of an automobiles than to its other characteristics. Besides, the distance between the school and my home is 7 km, which was the main reason for me to buy a car," said Mima. Currently, he drives in a small cross-country car made in China, his 3rd one in 2 years.

 

At present, there are 143.9 thousand private automobiles in Tibet, 35.2% more compared than at the end of 2006. That is to say, there is one private car among every 20 Tibetans, as the population in Tibet is 2.81 million.

 

Though the absolute number of private automobiles in Tibet is much smaller than the figure in other big cities in eastern China, it has been growing very fast. Some 50 years ago, the only private cars in Tibet belonged to the 14th Dalai Lama, and they could only run on the 2-km road between Norbu Lingka and the Potala Palace.

 

Nowadays, most parts of Tibet except Medog County of the Nyingchi Prefecture are linked with highways. The total length of highways in Tibet is some 44,800 km, 1,334 km longer than last year.