Celebration activities will be held across southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region Saturday, the 56th anniversary of the emancipation of Tibetan serfs.

Since the 1959 emancipation of serfs, Tibet has maintained rapid social and economic growth.

China's central government plans to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability in Tibet. By 2020, the per capita net income of farmers and herders in Tibet should be close to the national level, according to the plan announced last year.

Tibet's capacity to provide public service and infrastructure must also be comparable to the nation's average by 2020, through more government investment and better management.

Many of the former serfs are still alive today.

"The first 50 years of my life were dark and with no dignity," said Tsering Chodron, a former serf. "My life as a human began only after 1959."

She was among up to 1 million serfs that gained freedom thanks to the central government's democratic reform launched in Tibet on March 28, 1959.

Soinam Wangyal, 80, never missed the peach blossom festival held in Bayi Town of Nyingchi Prefecture every March. He and his wife Thubten, 72, not only took delight in the fragrance and warm spring air, but also felt a sense of security and happiness in the merrymaking crowd that poured into the orchards.

As a child, Soinam Wangyal had to work ceaselessly from dawn till dark, surviving on only two spoonfuls of tsamba and two tiny buckwheat pancakes a day. He never had shoes or trousers.

"All the serfs were constantly beaten -- even my grandma, at 70, could not avoid being beaten," he said. "As a child I wished I had been a bird, or even a worm, instead of a serf."

His wife Thubten never knew how or why her father had disappeared on an errand to carry goods for the serf owner. "He never came back and we never heard from him again. Maybe he was killed by robbers or the serf owner."

After the 1959 reform, Soinam Wangyal's family was allocated cropland and cattle. He was also elected head of the local production team. Thubten received government-sponsored training on modern farming techniques in the neighboring Sichuan Province. Their shared past plight allowed them to form a close connection and the two were married in the 1960s.

Today, their home village Drache reported a per capita annual income of 10,360 yuan. The village, with a population of 469, runs a dairy farm that produces 300 kilograms of milk a day and has a 30-hectare vegetable production base.

The couple's son, Tobgye, runs a pig farm where more than 200 pigs are raised.

"It's a time people enjoy everything they do," said Soinam Wangyal.