LHASA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- In a control room in Maizhokunggar County to the east of Lhasa in southwest China, technicians at Julong Copper remotely operate two rotary drills at once, a glimpse of how industry is changing on the plateau.
"The man-machine separation system keeps operators away from high dust and noise, improves safety and greatly reduces the risk of occupational disease," said Cao Bin, deputy general manager of the company.
The scene in Lhasa is striking, in that it is a city more often associated with high altitude than with industrial automation. In 2025, the capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region saw its GDP exceed 100 billion yuan (about 14.7 billion U.S. dollars), becoming the first prefecture-level city in the region to cross that mark.
For a city sitting more than 3,650 meters above sea level, where development is constrained by thin air and a fragile environment, the milestone was hard-won.
A HIGH-ALTITUDE GROWTH STORY
From more than 69 billion yuan in 2020 to above 100 billion yuan in 2025, Lhasa's rise over the past five years was not due to a single sector. It was built on a broader mix of industrial upgrading, cultural tourism, digital development and cross-border trade, with urban greening and public-service investment reshaping the city alongside economic growth.
But industry has become a more prominent pillar of Lhasa's economy. Officials say the city has drawn a red line with projects high in pollution and energy consumption but low in efficiency, while it steers industry toward lower-carbon and higher-end development. In 2025, industrial value-added output reached 27.2 billion yuan, accounting for 24.9 percent of the city's GDP.
Lhasa has also tried to speed up project delivery and make it easier for businesses to set up operations. In 2025, a foreign-funded precious metals processing project in the city's comprehensive bonded zone went from signing its entry agreement in August to trial production in October, completing the process in just two months. The city added 28,900 business entities last year, bringing the total number to 213,100, about one-third of Xizang's total.
Trade is also becoming a more visible part of Lhasa's growth story, with cross-border e-commerce emerging as a new engine. In May 2025, Lhasa's South Asia cross-border e-commerce industrial park officially opened, becoming Xizang's first provincial-level park of its kind. Its exports reached 140 million yuan in its first month. The city added 103 new foreign-trade filing enterprises in 2025 and cultivated 19 firms with actual foreign-trade performance.
For firms using the park, the benefits are already tangible. Fu Guangyi, head of Lhasa Zangni International Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., said the park's logistics model had shortened vehicle export cycles and improved route stability.
"With the logistics model of domestic collection, transfer through Lhasa and direct connection to overseas warehouses, our vehicle export cycle has been significantly shortened, and the route's stability has been recognized by the market," he said.
GROWTH AND ECOLOGY ON "ROOF OF THE WORLD"
Yet in Lhasa, growth is unfolding under the pressure of a fragile plateau environment. On the drive up to Julong's mining core area, blue sheep and white-lipped deer can still be seen on the slopes.
Since 2021, the company has worked with research teams on ecological restoration in high-altitude mining areas. Lan Shuirong, head of environmental protection and ecology at Julong Copper, said the company has adopted a terraced restoration model to pursue development and environmental protection in tandem.
Beyond the mining area, Lhasa has also tied urban upgrading to sponge-city construction and its effort to build itself into an international wetland city, while carrying out water-system improvement projects in the urban center. So far, it has built 62.5 kilometers of urban waterways, added nearly 800 hectares of urban water area and restored about 14 hectares of urban wetlands.
The changes are also visible in public spaces. In August 2025, Lhasa Tuanjie Park, located west of the Potala Palace and at the foot of Yaowang Mountain, opened to the public. "I just took a walk around the park, and it made me feel especially relaxed," said Deyang, a nearby resident, adding that the park had improved the quality of life for local people.
Launched in 2021, Lhasa's 10-year greening project on the mountains to its north and south has already completed 60,000 hectares of afforestation and planted more than 120 million trees and shrubs. Together with the Lhalu Wetland National Nature Reserve, often called the "lung of Lhasa," it forms part of the city's wider effort to improve the urban environment.
LHASA BEYOND PILGRIMAGE
Lhasa is also trying to build a richer tourism economy around its culture and history. On the Lhasa River, night cruises combine performances, light shows and stories of the city's past, reflecting a broader effort to turn tourism from sightseeing into a more immersive cultural experience.
"Watching the performance while taking in the night views from the cruise is a feast for both the eyes and the mind," said a visitor surnamed Zhong from south China's Guangdong Province.
That push to broaden the city's economic identity extends into the digital realm. At the Lhasa high level forum of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference, visitors gathered around an AI translation headset powered by a model developed by tech company Wiseweb, Xizang University and other research institutions. It supports translation among the three main Tibetan dialects -- U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo, and can operate even without an internet connection.
Behind such products is a wider build-out of digital infrastructure. Authorities are accelerating the construction of a national internet backbone link point in Lhasa, while the city added 117 digital-economy enterprises in 2025.
As Lhasa's economy has grown, the city has also invested heavily to improve everyday life. More than 70 percent of its fiscal resources, the city says, are directed to public services and other livelihood-related areas, and in 2025 it implemented 20 initiatives covering education, employment, healthcare and transport.
Lhasa's 100-billion-yuan milestone is not just a statistic. It points to a new phase for a city long shaped by geography and ecology, one that is trying to build growth through industry, trade, tourism and technology while also making room for ecological restoration and better public services. In the sunlit city on the plateau, the task now is to carry that balanced approach forward. ■
