Car-ownership boom means traffic jams in once-tranquil Tibet; underground parking lot open

The Associated Press
Published: November 7, 2007

BEIJING: A boom in car ownership has brought traffic jams to Tibet's once-tranquil capital and prompted it to open its first underground parking lot, state media reported Wednesday.

Lhasa has 400,000 people and 70,000 registered vehicles, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The numbers give it a per capita car ownership rate close to Beijing's.

Such developments stem from the enormous sums of Chinese government money flowing into Tibet, transforming Lhasa — a town of distinctly Tibetan character and just 20,000 people 50 years ago — into a bustling city whose modern architecture and growing ethnic Chinese population increasingly resemble urban areas in the rest of China.

Car ownership appears to be the latest mark of modernization, with Beijing and other Chinese cities already choked by traffic congestion.

China's government hopes pumping in money will help tap Tibet's mineral wealth, open it up to new settlement and tourism, and tamp down pro-independence sentiment among native Tibetans who consider their homeland to have been a separate country for much of their history. Communist troops occupied the region in 1951, and Tibet's former rulers were overthrown following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

The new underground parking lot, which has just 36 spaces, is strategically located near Lhasa's popular dining and nightlife district where traffic jams are especially bad, Xinhua said.