Homestays mean prosperity for Tibetan herdsmen

Herdsmen in the countryside around Nyingchi, Tibet, have benefited from the boom in local tourism, profiting from homestays for tourists.

In recent years, Nyingchi has pushed to make tourism a strategic pillar industry. One town, Lunang, has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region, standing out with its unique natural landscape, which includes the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon and Namcha Barwa mountain in the Tibetan Himalayas.

Residents near Lunang had made their living exclusively by growing highland barley, digging mushrooms and tending yaks - that is, until Phuntsok, 71, opened his home for travelers to stay in 1998, introducing a new source of income to the once-poor village.