19 Aug 2021

Changchub Wangdu, an entrepreneur hailing from Nagqu City, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, had expected his parents to move to the regional capital Lhasa, as he considers the place more suitable for his ailing mother due to its low altitude and a better climate compared with his hometown.

“My parents have been through a lot of hardships.

They deserve a better life,” said the Tibetan.

Eighth among his nine siblings, the 26-year-old knows how much his parents toiled all their lives as yak herders.

The couple saved homemade yak butter in exchange for money to support the children, and even the elder siblings used to save yak meat for the younger ones.

“During hospital visits, my sick mother had to carry one kid in her arms and another on her back,” Changchub Wangdu said, adding that she had to go and herd yaks the very next day after delivering a baby.

At the age of 15, Changchub Wangdu was admitted to a vocational school in Nagqu, majoring in Tibetan medicine.

To reduce the burden of tuition costs on his family, he applied for an internship at a local private clinic operated by a Han man from southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

Although they were not related, Changchub Wangdu used to call the man “uncle.”

“I learned how to fill a prescription and administer an injection in the clinic.

Instead of paying me wages, my uncle covered all my tuition fees,” he said.

After completing his studies at the vocational school, Changchub Wangdu sold second-hand cars for several months before finding a job in a security company, escorting convoys transferring cash for banks and other companies.

He is now the manager at the Nagqu branch of the company, earning more than ¥100,000 (about US$15,400 dollars) a year.

Taking some money on loan from a bank and borrowing some from his Han “uncle,” Changchub Wangdu opened a restaurant serving Tibetan cuisine in May 2019.

The eatery generated more than ¥100,000 worth of profit in the following year.

Last year, Changchub Wangdu spent more than ¥600,000 on a single-bedroom apartment in Lhasa, where his parents have moved in.

This month, Wangchen, Changchub Wangdu’s grandfather, came to visit the new home in Lhasa from the city of Golmud, Qinghai Province, traveling along the very road where the 76-year-old once used to work. END