Tibetan herdsmen who live by taking shelters by the riversides for thousands of years are bidding farewell to their vagrant lifestyle. The implementation of the Tibetan Meadow Construction and Herdsmen Housing project, which has a planned investment of 200 million yuan, finds housing for 48,000 Tibetan herdsmen.

Tibet is one of the five major pasturing areas in China, which has more than 82 million hectares of natural meadow and 23 million domesticated animals. Stockbreeding becomes an important industry for realizing the leapfrog social and economic development.

As learned from the agricultural and animal husbandry department of the autonomous region the Tibetan Meadow Construction and Herdsmen Housing project is one of the Tibet-aiding projects decided at the 4th Central Tibetan Work Symposium. It is aimed at improving the backward working and living conditions of local farmers and herdsmen.

According to officials with the agricultural and animal husbandry department Tibet has completed investing 130 million yuan in the project and the construction of more than 600,000 square meters of housing area, which can meet the housing need of 48,000 herdsmen. Meanwhile more than 450,000 mu (30,000 hectares) of warm sheds for animals, 1.19 million square meters of animal pens and 60,000 square meters of hay sheds have been built. An area of more than 1.09 million mu (72,667 hectares) is made into meadow enclosure or otherwise improved in meadow condition.