Tibetan's dream to be train driver comes true

As the only ethnic Tibetan high-speed train driver in China, 40-year-old Losong Tsering was elated when he sat in the driver's cabin on the Lanzhou-Xining section of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railway for the first time in 2017.

He was born in a mountainous village in Chamdo city, Tibet autonomous region, and knew little about trains during his childhood. Trips to the city of Chamdo, Tibet's third-largest, were rare.

But in 1985, the central government started sending Tibetan primary and middle school students from rural areas to study at high schools in inland cities, paying for meals, accommodation and tuition fees. That program made all the difference. After primary school, Losong Tsering was able to study in Wuhan, Hubei province, stepping out of Chamdo for the first time.