Original title: "City of Sunlight" Renews Every Day — Lhasa's Answer Behind Breaking the Trillion-Yuan Economic Mark
In 2025, Lhasa's gross regional product exceeded one trillion yuan, becoming the first prefecture-level city in Tibet to cross the trillion-yuan threshold. Elsewhere, this might not be remarkable. But on the world's rooftop, with an average altitude above 3,650 meters, where it is cold, oxygen-deficient, and ecologically fragile, it is truly difficult.
From the start of the "14th Five-Year Plan" in 2020, when the economy exceeded 690 billion yuan, to the end of the plan in 2025, breaking one trillion yuan, Lhasa has achieved high-quality development year after year, with results every year.
In recent years, the entire city has adhered to the spirit of "success does not necessarily have to be in my tenure" and the historical responsibility of "success must have me," fostering strengths and avoiding weaknesses, making persistent efforts, and delivering a new answer sheet for the border capital.
(Photo: Aerial view of Aru Wetland in Damxung County, Tibet, taken on May 28.)
Adapting to Local Conditions: "Breaking New Ground" with a Modern Industrial System
Precise positioning, autonomous drilling, automatic hole depth measurement... a series of actions completed in one go. At Tibet Julong Mining Co., Ltd. in Maizhokunggar County, Lhasa, in front of the remote intelligent control platform, technicians are simultaneously operating two same-model rotary drill rigs.
"The man-machine separation mode keeps operators away from harsh working environments such as high dust and noise, ensuring operational safety and greatly reducing the occurrence of occupational diseases in mines," said Cao Bin, deputy general manager of Tibet Julong Copper Co., Ltd.
Driving along the winding mountain road toward the core mining area, one occasionally sees blue sheep, white-lipped deer, and other animals. Lan Shuirong, head of the Environmental Protection and Ecology Department of Tibet Julong Copper Co., Ltd., said that since 2021, the company has teamed up with research teams to form a research group focusing on ecological restoration at high altitudes, adopting a stepwise restoration model to ensure that the mine is developed with protection and protected with development.
This is a vivid portrayal of Lhasa's insistence on improving the quality and efficiency of green industry and empowering both ecology and benefits.
Zou Huawei, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Lhasa Municipal Development and Reform Commission, introduced that Lhasa adheres to the bottom line of zero introduction of "two highs and one low" projects (high energy consumption, high pollution, low efficiency), promotes the transformation of industry towards low-carbon and high-end, and in 2025 the industrial added value reached 27.161 billion yuan, accounting for 24.9% of the economy, with the "ballast stone" role of industry becoming increasingly prominent.
As night falls, the cruise ship on the Lhasa River slowly sets sail, and a light show unfolds gradually, telling the story of Lhasa's thousand-year history and development changes.
"Watching performances and enjoying the beautiful scenery on the cruise ship is truly a wonderful experience," said Mr. Zhong, a tourist from Guangdong.
In recent years, Lhasa has deeply explored its unique cultural connotations, promoted the implementation of key projects such as "Love on the Lhasa River" and "Tang-Tibet Wonderful Night," transforming the cultural tourism industry from sightseeing to experiential, combining "cultural depth" and "cultural warmth."
At the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference Lhasa High-Level Forum, many attendees stopped to watch the Sunlit Snow Lotus AI translation earphones, which can translate Tibetan in real time.
The multilingual large model developed by Wangzhi Tianyuan Technology Group Co., Ltd. in collaboration with Tibet University and other research institutions has broken down language barriers, supporting translation of three Tibetan dialects (U-Tsang, Kham, and Amdo), and can still operate stably even in offline environments.
In recent years, Lhasa has ridden the "digital" wave to pursue "innovation," building "foundations" and attracting "intelligence." The Lhasa High-Level Forum of the Global Digital Economy Conference has achieved fruitful results, the national-level internet backbone direct connection point has been fully completed, 117 new digital economy enterprises have been added, and "prospering the city with data" is being developed with difficulty.
(Photo: The 40 MW photovoltaic power station of CNNC (Tibet) Energy Development Co., Ltd. in Doilungdêqên District, Lhasa, taken on March 7, 2025.)
Breaking Through Mechanisms: Creating "Lhasa Attraction" with Reform and Services
In October 2025, a foreign-invested precious metal processing project began trial production in the Lhasa Comprehensive Bonded Zone. From signing the zone entry agreement in August to trial production in October, it took only two months to complete the entire pre-production process, creating a plateau speed of "investment attraction in the same year, trial production in the same year."
Whether the business environment is good or not, enterprises have the most say. This "nanny-style" service and "accelerated" promotion model has led more enterprises to choose to take root in Lhasa and cultivate the plateau. In 2025, Lhasa added 28,900 new market entities, with a total of 213,100 registered market entities, accounting for one-third of Tibet.
Lhasa developed an "one-click bid compilation" intelligent system, designing templates for bidding documents in different industries, effectively reducing the cost of bidding for enterprises. "Since last year, we have actively optimized the bidding process, compressing the fastest processing time for bidding projects to 27 days. Among them, the time for the tenderer to entrust the agency has been reduced from 10-30 days to 2 days, greatly improving efficiency," Zou Huawei said.
To timely and accurately grasp the economic operation situation, the Lhasa Municipal Development and Reform Commission has established an economic operation monitoring indicator system covering 39 major indicators and 132 detailed indicators. Through normalized monitoring, semi-monthly scheduling, and monthly analysis, it promptly identifies and resolves bottlenecks and difficulties in economic operation, ensuring that the economy operates within a reasonable range.
In May 2025, the Lhasa South Asian Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park was officially inaugurated and awarded the title of Tibet's first provincial-level cross-border e-commerce industrial park, with its export volume reaching 140 million yuan in the same month.
"Relying on the industrial park's three-level logistics network model of 'domestic collection + Lhasa transit + overseas warehouse direct connection,' our vehicle export cycle has been greatly reduced, and the channel stability has been recognized by the market," said Fu Guangyi, head of Lhasa Nepal International Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd.
Currently, 12 cross-border e-commerce enterprises have settled in the park, and the second phase of the overseas warehouse in Kathmandu, Nepal, is progressing steadily. The "Lhasa Bonded Cross-border Commodity Flagship Store" is in trial operation, achieving "order placed on the same day, delivered on the same day," allowing citizens to "buy globally" at their doorstep.
In 2025, Lhasa added 103 new foreign trade filing enterprises and cultivated 19 foreign trade enterprises with actual performance. Cross-border e-commerce has become a new engine for foreign trade growth, promoting the "going out" of plateau specialty products and the "bringing in" of international quality goods.
(Photo: Photo taken on May 27 of the under-construction Tibet Kaituo Amdo Tushuo 100MW solar thermal project in Amdo County, Nagqu City, Tibet (drone stitching photo).)
Livable and Workable: Strengthening "People's Livelihood and Welfare" Based on People's Expectations
People's livelihood is paramount, people's livelihood is essential.
"Investing more than 70% of financial resources in people's livelihood every year" is a solemn promise made by the Lhasa Municipal Party Committee and Government. This promise is being transformed into a sense of gain and happiness that the masses can see and feel.
Looking up is snowy mountains and white clouds; looking down is clear streams and green grass. Opening windows to see green and stepping out to enter parks has become a daily routine for residents.
In August 2025, the Lhasa Unity Park, located at the western foot of the Potala Palace and the foot of Mount Yao, opened to the public. The lake water is clear, the trees are shady, and flowers are blooming. "I just took a walk in the park, and I feel very happy," said Deyang, a citizen living near the park, who said the park has improved her quality of life.
People who have lived here for a long time feel that the "microclimate" of Lhasa is changing, from dry to humid. Combining the construction of a sponge city and the creation of an international wetland city, Lhasa has focused on implementing the central urban area water system management improvement project, promoting the environmental improvement of Mount Yao and the renovation of the two islands' inner river, gradually achieving "water moistens the city." To date, the city has built 62.5 kilometers of urban water systems, increased urban water area by nearly 800 hectares, and restored about 14 hectares of urban wetlands.
Known as the "lung of Lhasa," Lhalu Wetland is now frequented by migratory birds; the once barren North and South Mountains are now lush with vegetation. In 2021, the Lhasa North-South Mountain Greening Project was officially launched, with a plan to complete 2.0672 million mu (about 137,800 hectares) of afforestation in 10 years. To date, 900,000 mu (about 60,000 hectares) have been completed, with more than 120 million seedlings planted. "Greening the city" is gradually becoming a reality.
Mobile medical examination vehicles have achieved full coverage of counties and districts, providing convenient medical services for people in remote areas; four new schools have been built, solving the dining problem for eight schools, allowing high-quality educational resources to benefit more children; 93 city buses have been upgraded, and 320 bus stops have been newly built or renovated to facilitate travel; 15 public toilets in the main urban area have been completed and put into use, eliminating blind spots in toilet coverage...
In 2025, 20 practical livelihood projects covering education, employment, medical care, and transportation have effectively solved the urgent problems of the masses.
2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region, a year of major events and happy occasions for Lhasa. President Xi Jinping led a central delegation to attend the celebration activities for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region, greatly inspiring the enthusiasm of people of all ethnic groups to strive for a new era.
Lhasa's development proves that under the guidance of the Party's policies for governing Tibet in the new era, border ethnic regions have the confidence, confidence, and ability to follow the path of high-quality development.
Looking back, the achievements of the "14th Five-Year Plan" are solid; looking forward, the blueprint of the "15th Five-Year Plan" has been drawn. Lhasa is striding toward a new journey with a high-spirited attitude, contributing to the construction of Chinese-style modernization. (Reporters: Zhou Limin, Bai Mingshan, Jiang Mengchen)
