The housing project in Tibet had been wrapped up by the end of 2013, fulfilling the dream of 2.3 million farmers and herders in moving into new houses, Xinhua reported.

By the end of 2013, Tibet has built up new houses for 463,000 households with the investment of 27.8 billion yuan, which has added the per capita floor space by 20 to 30 percent for farmers and herders in the entire region, according to Tseten, vice chairman of the Housing Project Construction Office of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The low, dim and adobe houses have been replaced by concrete two-story Tibetan-style buildings, according to Xinhua.

Gyaltsen Norbu, villager of the Dagar village, the Chushur County in Lhasa’s suburban area, has just moved into a new house funded by the state subsidy of 25,000 yuan. It is decorated with traditional Tibetan paintings of 'Four animals living in harmony' , signifying that young people should pay respect to their seniors and the whole family live in harmony" , and "Eight Tibetan Buddhist treasures" including precious canopy, lotus flower, auspicious knots and so on.

"I used to like bask the sun in the open air, but now I can enjoy the sunshine on the second floor of my house," said Gyaltsen Norbu.

Aside from improving the living conditions, the housing project, initiated in 2006 also opened up local people’s mind.

When houses were being built, many farmers and herders had been engaged in the construction work in different teams concerning sand, bricks and cement making, carpentry, house building, shipping and so on, which has increased incomes of Tibetan farmers and herders. In the meanwhile, governments at the regional, county and township levels also provided job skill training for them, which have nurtured a bunch of "experts", enhancing the labor transfer in the local areas.　　

Pasang, villager of the Thonga village in Lhasa’s suburban Todlung Dechen County said, "Our family is much better off through the housing project."

Pasang set up a cooperative company with his neighbors, who took up the transportation business on the housing construction sites. Their annual income per truck has surpassed 100,000 yuan.

Since 2006 Tibet has implemented the housing project focused on renovating farmers' houses, relocating poor farmers and building new houses for nomadic herders to settle down and residents in the border areas. During the process, farmers' and herders' own wills, choices and customs had been fully respected with the aim of improving their living conditions to the maximum extent.

Tibet has also invested two billion yuan in consolidating the houses of the rural and pastoral areas of the quake-stricken Tibet.

In 2014, Tibet will continue to conduct the project of improving the environment of 1,000 administrative villages in the whole region in accordance with the "Rural residence environment improvement strategy 2011-2015". 　

(Note: one US dollar equals to 6.10 yuan)