Question from an online user:

My home is in Litang County, Garze Prefecture, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. The people in my hometown are very much looking forward to the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway and its opening as soon as possible. What is the current progress?

Representative’s answer:

Xiao Youcai, a representative to the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC), deputy secretary of Garze Prefecture Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and governor of Garze:

In the preliminary work, we have organized personnel to set up a railway construction office in order to plan and protect all rail station sites along the route. In particular, we are currently doing some necessary planning for future comprehensive development on the station locations that this rail line will pass through. At the same time, we are linking up with the Sichuan-Tibet Railway Company for all the basic building materials needed for the Sichuan-Tibet Railway project and carrying out some planning and protection measures. We are all eagerly awaiting the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway.

Question from an online user:

My hometown is in a beautiful place. In addition to some famous scenic spots, there are actually many more beautiful places and historic tourist spots. The locals are familiar with them, but outside tourists are not aware of them. How can we build a cultural tourism brand in this era of new media?

Representative’s answer:

Yang Kening, a representative to the 13th NPC, deputy secretary of the CPC Sichuan Province Aba Prefecture Committee and governor of Aba Prefecture:

Media promotion is very important for tourism development, especially in the era of information. Tourism should be integrated into new media. At present, tourism has already broken through the traditional scenic tours and entered an era of all-for-one tourism. Under such conditions, tourism must be combined with media promotion.

Aba Prefecture is rich in resources of cultural tourism. In the era of new media, turning "advantageous resources" into a unique "advantageous brand" to form a large "developmental advantage" is an issue that we are committed to researching and understanding. We are currently proposing the "Pure Land Aba, Snow Mountains and Grasslands" concept. A series of ideas under this concept will inevitably require special creativity, production, packaging, and distribution. This series of ideas must be closely integrated with new media.

Question from an online user:

Now when anyone gets sick, they go to the community hospital to see a doctor. However, community hospitals, which only have very basic medical facilities, may not be able to treat some serious illnesses, and people might have to go to a larger hospital far away. Are there any countermeasures or suggestions regarding this problem?

Jiang Jicun, a representative to the 13th NPC and deputy director of the Garze Prefecture Tibetan Medicine Hospital:

The problem of attracting medical professionals to work in ethnic minority areas is particularly urgent. It is hard to get them to come and hard to get them to stay. This restricts the development of the medical profession in these areas. In this regard, I propose increasing the pass rate for licensed physicians and optimize the examination period for specialists and students at or below the specialist level. At present, most of the medical professionals at the prefecture, township, and county levels in ethnic minority areas are associate degree holders with low certification rates. There are also undocumented workers and some who practice illegally. However, the medical institutions are in great need of these personnel. Secondly, we should focus attention on training local medical professionals in an order-oriented way. At the same time, we should effectively encourage local professionals to improve their theoretical foundation and technical level through pairing up with aid partners from other provincesl.

Editor: Tommy Tan.