The Townships

The major tourist attractions here include the watch tower, the Niyang scenery, the forest of giant cypresses, the Dazi Temple, the ancient mulberry, the Lulang forest, the ecological museum, viewing the Najiabawa Peak from afar and Rijimucuo etc. Different from other parts of Nyingchi, this zone is noted for its urban attractions and tourist shops. Owing to the comprehensive tourist facilities it has become the heart of tourist services for Nyingchi. The Lulang Holiday Resort and the Holiday Village of the Rijimucuo Lake are the two key tourist projects and highlights in the development zone. The local government attaches great importance to the integration of green and aquatic tourism. A comprehensive tourist zone encompassing five elements of modern tourism, namely, food, accommodation, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment, is taking its form.

As a new industrial town Bayi (2,900 meters above the sea level) is the seat for the local government. It is surrounded with mountain ranges with the quiet Niyang River flowing by in its south. Bayi is noted for its dense forest, rich rain precipitation and mild climate. Called Labaga in the earlier time, Bayi used to be a deserted rocky river beach where there were no more than two temples and 100 residents engaging in burn-and-slash agriculture before the 1960s. It was called Bayi (a name related to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)) for showing the locals’ gratitude and respects for the PLA. With the helps of the PLA and other provinces and cities, modern textile, papermaking and construction material factories, power station, schools, hospitals, commercial banks have been built here in the following decades. The past decade witnessed the rapidest growth of Bayi and today it has turned out to be a dynamic town with a population of over 14 thousands.

The strategic location of Bayi makes it easy for its residents to travel to Chengdu in the east, Shannan in the south and Lhasa in the north. Now it has been a logistic center for modern home appliances, garments, and etc. from inland China and local special products like jewelries, Tibetan ornaments, and knives from the neighboring regions. Shoppers have big fun when strolling and bargaining in the new street. The old pebble roads have been replaced by broad ones of Canton, Fujian and Hong Kong etc (these streets are named after their sponsoring provinces or cities). In the past few years more than 110,000 square meters’ housing have been built and new hotels, shopping malls, cafes, restaurants and ballrooms make Bayi a sleepless town.

The newly built Pearl River Market is hustling and bustling as always. Chicken, fish, meat, vegetable, fruits and mountainous goods are all sold and bought here. Pointing at his good booth and bringing out a wedge of banknotes, a vendor called Lamu from the mountainous village said “only by doing business from the mountainous valley to the outside markets can we enjoy rich and comfortable life.”

On the hillsides around the Bayi County there scatter a few ancient villages. The villagers used to live in wood villas. During the past decade many of them have become rich enough to build modern house. Now lines of pretty and light-colored houses among the Qinggang red birches have turned out to be new scenery in Bayi.

Location

This zone consists of four townships of Baiba, Bayi, Dazi and Dongjiu.