Shuanghu Special District [Photo/ECNS.CN]

Shuanghu Special District, located in the depopulated zone of northern Tibet with a 5000 meters elevation, covers two-thirds of Hoh Xil. The district is short of oxygen with only one third of the oxygen amount in the sea level. With long winter and no summer, natural disasters occur frequently.

Owing to the folk description of “nine out of ten years are disastrous”, Shuanghu is labeled as “human life limit laboratory”. On the vast area of 120,000km live only 12,000 people.

The current Shuanghu Special District (Shuanghu for short) originates from the previous Shuanghu office which was established in 1976 to develop and construct the depopulated zone in North Tibet.

Shuanghu is 650km away from Lhasa with 300km of no-road and 50km wetland. The traffic condition is so bad that it takes at least one day to travel between the two places, with getting-lost and car-trapping happening frequently.

The local people have summarized “thirteen particularities” for Shuanghu: high altitude, little oxygen, vast land, beautiful glacier, awful weather, poor road condition, few people, and bad water quality etc.

However, during the past ten years, Shuanghu has developed more than 90 aid-Tibet projects and received a total investment of over 0.2 billion yuan(about $32.12 million) from China National Petroleum Corporation(CNPC), which is a strong power to implement the development of Shuanghu Special District.

In 2005, the Shuanghu Middle School built by CNPC was put into use. There are comprehensive teaching building, office, dormitory, canteen and playground. The principal of the school told the reporter that in 2011, with another investment of over 4.5 million yuan(about $722,700), the floor before the teaching building was tiled with colorful bricks, avoiding the muddy road during rainy days and flying dust. There are also more than 40 street lamps, lighting from 9 p.m to 6 a.m of the next day to insure the students' travel safety.

In 2006, the building of Shuanghu District Kindergarten had been tested for acceptance. It was renovated with anther investment of 0.6 million yuan ($96,300) from CNPC this year covering facilitating the whole sets of tables, chairs, beds and beddings. The tuition is free for all the 88 kids, with 80% coming from herdsman family.

The Shuanghu Seniors' Home was constructed in 2005 on the cost from CNPC. Nowadays, there are all together 18 elders living in the 20 standard rooms with beds, tables, chairs, wired television and solar equipment. The local government provides each senior person with provisions such as ghee every quarter.

In the past ten years, with the help of CNPC, Shuanghu Special District has achieved the fastest change and development than ever before. Its local farmers and herdsmen have increased their income and gained a much better life.