Business environment

Overview

Located in the southwest of China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Tibet autonomous region covers more than 1.2 million square kilometers, accounting for one-eighth of China's territory. 

Tibet has a boundary line of approximately 4,000 kilometers and is surrounded by Xinjiang and Qinghai on the north, Sichuan and Yunnan on the east, and Myanmar, India, Bhutan and Nepal on the south and west.

Natural resources

Light resources. The annual total solar radiation in Tibet reaches 140-200 kcal/sq cm, nearly two times that of the eastern coastal areas of China.

Wind resources. Tibet is one of the windiest regions in China (≥ 8 or 17 m/s). The average annual number of windy days is as many as 100-150, and can rise to 200 days, 4 to 30 times more than the eastern part of China at the same latitude.

Water resources. The total amount of water resources in the region is 439.47 billion cubic meters (excluding groundwater), or 16.21 percent of the total river runoff volume in China. The per capita water resources occupancy and the average water occupancy per mu (0.067 hectares) are the highest in the country. 

Grassland farmland resources. The region has 1.33 billion mu (88.9 million hectares) of natural grassland, accounting for 74.11 percent of the region's, the largest such area in the country, of which 1.13 billion mu are available. It also has 6,626,600 mu of arable land (the substantially controlled area is 5,550,750 mu), of which 0.62 million mu are paddy fields, 3.98 million mu are irrigated land, and 2.02 million mu are dry land.

Forest resources. The area has 17.84 million hectares of forest land, and 1,475,600 hectares of forest area. The per capita forest area is 49,000 square meters, ranking first in the country. Its forest coverage rate is 11.98 percent, the country's fifth largest.

Plant resources. The region boasts 9,600 kinds of wild plants, of which 855 kinds are peculiar in Tibet, 6,600 kinds of advanced plants, 415 kinds of edible fungus and 238 kinds of medicinal fungus. 

Animal resources. The number of large and medium-sized wild animals in the whole region is the highest in China. The population of Tibetan antelope is more than 80 percent of the world's, 80 percent of the world’s black-necked cranes overwinter in Tibet, and the area's volume of wild cattle consumption is 78 percent of the world's.

Wetland resources. Tibet has 6.53 million hectares of wetlands, 5.3 percent of its total area, and the second largest wetland area in China. 

Mineral resources. To date, one hundred and three mineral types (subtypes) and more than 3,000 mineral deposits, points and mineralization sites have been found in Tibet, and reserves of 49 kinds of minerals have been identified. The dominant mineral resources found in the region include copper, chromium, lead, zinc and silver polymetallic, molybdenum, iron, antimony, gold, and natural mineral water, all with broad prospecting potential.