Xining builds industrial park dedicated to Tibetan plateau
Xining builds industrial park dedicated to Tibetan plateau
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Xining, Qinghai, China
This is the fourth article in a series based on a visit by six
Indonesian journalists, including The Jakarta Post, to China
courtesy of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of China.
As a result of the "go west" policy of 1999, a 4.3 square-
kilometer industrial park has materialized itself this year in a
suburb of the usually quiet but scenic town of Xining, capital of
the western province of Qinghai.
China has hundreds of industrial parks across the country, but
this newly finished park is unique; it is the only scientific
estate garden devoted to Tibetan medicine.
"We offer a three-in-one preferential policy," said Guo
Tianming, director of the park, "Companies enjoy preferential
treatment from the state, provincial and local level." One
example of this preferential treatment is a tax holiday for 11
years.
Already, 54 enterprises have set up their offices in the park
which has capacity to house up to 80 firms. With less than 100
staff, the park boasts a US$30 million per year profit.
Close proximity to the nearby highland, the Tibetan plateau,
is the unique characteristic of the park. Companies operating
here plan to exploit special plants from the plateau, often
referred to by ecologists as the world's "third pole" (besides
the North and the South poles) for its tremendous height.
Only 10 percent of Qinghai province lies outside of the
plateau. More than half of the plateau rises 4,000 meters above
sea level including China's biggest Qinghai salt lake.
The plateau is famous for its unique climate, such as extreme
cold, oxygen deficiency, strong sunshine and non-polluted air
that contributes to the unique characteristics of the medicinal
herbs growing in this land, as well as the animals.
Over 70 percent of the enterprises devote themselves to
developing healthy food and pharmaceuticals derived from the
herbs and animals in the resource-rich plateau, Guo said.
China recognizes 33 types of traditional medicine, including
those of Han, Tibetan, Uygur and Mongolia. The Han, or Chinese,
medicine is the most famous, but Tibetan medicine is unique for
its vitality since it is derived from rare plants and animals
found on the Tibetan plateau, Guo said.
"Since they are different from other domestic plants, the
effect of Tibetan medicines are acute," he said.
If so, why has Tibetan medicine yet to gain world-wide
popularity? Guo said there were two reasons for this. First,
Tibetan medicine lacks a theoretical basis.
"We only know which medicines cure which illnesses, like, for
example, headaches, but we don't know why they cure the illness,"
said Guo.
Second, Tibetan medicine is often promoted under the banner of
Chinese medicine, he said.
The park works in tandem with the Arura Tibetan Medicine Group
(Tibetan Pharmaceuticals of Jin He) which was set up in 2000, in
downtown Xining nearby a Tibetan hospital. The group is at the
center of the most comprehensive research ever conducted into
Tibetan medicine.
Rare plants and animals from the Tibetan plateau are put into
glass tubes for research purposes. In the multi-layer shelves are
hundreds of volumes of Tibetan medicine books. A huge scholarly
task is taking place here to translate ancient books into modern
Chinese.
"The government has just realized how important the legacy of
Tibetan medicine is," a government source said, "hence the
opening of the center."
With the establishment of the industrial park and the Tibetan
medicine center, the importance of the Tibetan plateau gains new
heights.