China's State Council, or the cabinet, approved Shannan's application to be upgraded from a prefecture to a prefecture-level city in January.

Shannan will now get its own city committee of the Communist Party of China, government, people's congress standing committee, and political advisory body.

Located in southeastern Tibet with an average altitude of 3,700 meters, Shannan is the fifth prefecture-level city in Tibet after regional capital Lhasa, Qamdo, Xigaze and Nyingchi.

With a population of 360,000, Shannan had a GDP of 11.36 billion yuan(1.73 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015.

Phurbu Dondrup, mayor of Shannan City, said that conversion from a prefecture to a city means a simplified administrative approval procedure, which will be helpful for the economic development of the area due to higher efficiency.