Tibet's club coach hoping for a return of good old days

From being goalkeeper of the Tibet men's soccer team to the coach of the autonomous region's only soccer club, Tang Zesheng has witnessed the ups and downs of the sport's development in the region.

Tang, who is coach of Lhasa Pureland Football Club, said the regional soccer team had a period of success in the 1980s when it twice won an invitational tournament consisting of six teams from the six autonomous regions or prefectures nationwide.

"Those were the good old days," Tang said of the era, adding that the team, which consisted of both Han Chinese and Tibetan players, also took part in an international invitational tournament in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, where they finished as runners-up.