Local carpet industry alive with traditional Tibetan traits brought 10 million US dollars of foreign exchange to northwest China's Qinghai province in 2003, according to the provincial statistics department.

A major habitat of people from the Tibetan ethnic group besides the Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai province turned out approximately 200,000 square meters of top-quality Tibetan carpet last year.

More than 16,000 local craft people were employed in the trade,with a combined personal income of 56 million yuan (about 6.75 million US dollars) last year.

It is expected that the output of exquisite Tibetan carpet in the province would reach 400,000 square meters in 2005, with the earning from export hitting 20 million US dollars.

Source: Xinhua