Cultural Life Colorful For Villagers

YANG XIAOLIN

A medium wave 3-kw relay station was built in Nyingchi Prefecture in 1975, enabling local people to watch television for the first time. Over the past 25 years, the prefecture has gained much ground in the radio broadcasting and TV industries. The Nyingchi Prefectural Relay Station was set up in September 1985. The Nyingchi Prefectural Cultural, Radio and TV Bureau and the Nyingchi Prefectural Film Distribution Co. were set up in 1987.

By the end of 1999, the prefecture boasted one TV relay station at the prefectural level, 108 at the village level, and more than 30 cable TV relay stations; five medium wave relay stations; one radio broadcasting station at the prefectural level, two at the county level and 161 at the village level. Radio broadcasting covers 100,600 people, or 70 percent of the local population, and TV 110,800 people (77 percent). In Nyingchi County, radio and TV coverage have reached 92 percent and 97.6 percent. Initially, Nyingchi Prefectural TV Relay Station relayed only three programs a day, one from the CCTV and two from Tibet TV. To satisfy the growing need, the station underwent expansion at the end of 1995 to reach 25 Kw. Now, it offers 16,600 hours of programs in Tibetan and Chinese a year.

While relaying programs from CCTV and Tibet TV, the Prefectural Relay Station has also created its own programs such as "Nyingchi News", "News of the Week," and "News Across the Land." They add up to 1,825 hours a year. More than 90 percent of these programs are relayed to Tibet TV. With aid from Guangdong Province, the Nyingchi Prefectural Tibetan Program Center was set up, with 2.2 million Yuan provided by Guangdong Radio Broadcasting and TV Administration in 1997. According to the Central Government decision, Guangdong and Fujian Provinces are to aid Nyingchi. Guangdong invested 4.5 million Yuan to build the Nyingchi Prefectural Radio Broadcasting and TV Program Translation, Production and Broadcasting Center; and the Fujian Provincial Radio Broadcasting and TV Commission invested 1 million Yuan for the construction of the Nyingchi Prefectural Cable TV Relay Station, which went into operation in October 1997 offering a total of 22 programs a week??? The two provinces are also helping the radio broadcasting and TV industries in various counties in the prefecture.

Alongside with such developments, the film projection business has been developed from scratch. Nyingchi Prefectural Film Projection Co., whose assets have grown from nothing to 4 million Yuan, has 55 projection teams, staffed by 125 people, now serving the seven counties to the satisfaction of the local people.