Folk tour appeal

Tashigang also attracts road trip enthusiasts due to its location-it lies on National Highway 318 connecting Lhasa with Chengdu, capital of neighboring Sichuan province. The nearby popular scenic Lunang International Tourism Town has also increased tourist visits to the village.

"Tourists prefer local Tibetan-styled homestays to enjoy an authentic experience," says Chen Tiantian, an officer from the local government.

She says the earliest homestay in the village was established in 1998, when locals relied on farming and herding for a living. Over the years, they have bought cars and renovated their houses as their lives became better. The village's total tourism income is about 14 million yuan per year.

Infrastructure of the village was built with the help of Guangdong province. Since 1994, the central government has established pairing-up aid programs for Xizang with other provinces and equivalent administrative units in China, so Nyingchi and Guangdong were paired up.

Guesthouses in Tashigang are fully booked during peak season. It will cost about 300 yuan per night to book a homestay during peak season, and 100 yuan during off-peak season.

To help villagers better serve tourists, the local government has regularly organized free training sessions for them ranging from Mandarin lessons to cooking and housekeeping.

Chen says the language barrier is the first issue that needs to be tackled. Younger villagers are more likely to take up Mandarin lessons, as they are usually the ones communicating with tourists.

In four villages nearby with tourism businesses, more than one-third of the villagers have attended such lessons. About 80 percent of villagers can communicate with visitors in Mandarin, while the remaining 20 percent are elderly villagers that prefer speaking Tibetan.