Quality of life in southwest China’s Tibet keeps improving in recent years, a white paper on Progress in China's Human Rights in 2014 released by the State Information Office said on June 7.

Better houses, bigger living space

In 2014 the growth rate of the GDP of the Tibet was 3.4 percentage points higher than the national average. The region completed its housing project for farmers and herdsmen, after eight years of incremental investment that totaled 27.357 billion yuan. A total of 2.3 million farmers and herdsmen of 460,300 households have moved into solid and convenient houses, the paper said.

Besides, the per capita living space of Tibetan rural and urban residents is now 33.77 sq m and 41.39 sq m, respectively. Lhasa, capital city of Tibet, completed a natural gas heating project, enabling 105,200 households to enjoy "warm winters."

Free medical services available to all farmers,herdsmen

According to the white paper, now Tibet has a public medical and health service system combining Tibetan, Western and traditional Chinese medicine that covers all urban and rural areas of the autonomous region with Lhasa as the center, so free medical services are now available to all the farmers and herdsmen in Tibet.

Set up major disease supplementary health insurance

The subsidy for each farmer or herdsman for these medical services was raised to 380 yuan per person in 2015. The autonomous regional government allocated a special fund of 23 million yuan to set up a major disease supplementary health insurance for farmers and herdsmen, the white paper said.

Project to help the needy and orphans

In addtion, according to the white paper a project is being carried out to provide the "five guarantees" (food, clothing, medical care, housing and funeral expenses) to the needy and orphans in communal settings. Some 72 percent of residents entitled to the "five guarantees" are now supported, and more than 5,900 orphans have received assistance from the government in this manner.