About 100 kilometers southeast of LhasaCity, the capital of southwest China’s XizangAutonomous Region, the Yarlung Tsangpo River valley gradually opens up, with stretches of green oases lining both banks and fields of highland barley.Here is Shannan, a city hailed as the "hidden realm of Xizang."

Shannan, known as "Lhoka" in Tibetan, meaning "the south" or "southern region," sits where the Yarlung River flows from the southern mountains into the Yarlung TsangpoRiver. The confluence of the two rivers has deposited a fertile delta. With an average altitude of about 3,700 meters, Shannan is a masterpiece of nature's extraordinary craftsmanship.

The Xiba Xiaqu Valley at just 110 meters above sea level and theMount Kuragangri at 7,554 meters create a near 70-fold elevation difference and an ecological spectacle that spans all four seasons.

From lush primeval forests to glaciers and peaks, from vast grasslands to scattered lakes, Shannan encompasses virtually every terrain found in Xizang, bringing the grandeur and beauty of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau to their ultimate expression.

This land has created numerous "firsts" in Tibetan history.

Ancient people plowed Xizang's first farmland and built its first village, making Shannan a major grain-producingplace. Xizang's first palace, Yumbulhakang, perched atop Tashi Tsiri Hill, has witnessed the passage of time and the continuity of civilization for over a thousand years.

Shannan is also home to "the first village of Xizang's democratic reform" and the first farmers' association, among the "eight firsts" after the democratic reform, bearing witness to the transformation of Tibetan society and writing a new chapter of civilization.

Tibetan opera, known as "Aji Lhamo", is a comprehensive art form combining narration, performance, singing, dancing, and literature, with a history of over 600 years.

In the Tashi Choden Community of Nedong District, ShannanCity, actors' soaring, melodious voices fill the air. Dressed in resplendent costumes and vivid masks, they step to ancient dance rhythms accompanied by resounding drumbeats, staging one ancient opera after another.

"In terms of historical origins, the Tibetan opera here can be counted among the earliest," said Nyma Tsering, director of the Tashi Choden Community Committee and a national-level intangible cultural heritage representative inheritor. The community is thus known as "the first village of Tibetan opera."

In recent years, Tashi Choden has pioneered a "Tibetan opera + homestay" model, allowing this ancient art to find new life amid the warmth of everyday living.

Besides the melodious charm of Tibetan opera, Shannan's cultural heritage is also woven into the warp and weft of its people's fingertips. In Nedong District, the sound of shuttle and thread has echoed across a millennium — this is "Zetel" (meaning the pulu of Tsetang, a traditionalTibetan woolen textile). Zetel is a premium grade of pulu, and legend has it that Princess Wencheng brought Central Plains weaving techniques to Xizang and integrated them into traditional pulu weaving when she arrived.

The craftsmanship of Zetel is extraordinarily exacting, requiring eighteen purely handcrafted steps from raw material to finished product. Even the most skilled artisan can produce only about 20 centimeters a day. This complexity once pushed it to the brink of extinction, but today it has been revitalized through the guardianship and innovation of its inheritors.

Continuingdriving to south and crossing the Rila Mountain at nearly 5,000 meters, the Yumai Valley lies hidden deep on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Rich in rainfall, the valley is shrouded in primeval forests of towering ancient trees, with babbling streams — a world apart from the vastness of the plateau's interior. Yumai was once cut off by heavy snowfall for a long time, and for a considerable period only the family of Sangye Quba — three people in all — lived there, guarding 3,644 square kilometers of national territory, earning it the name "the three-person town."

Today, paved roads wind through Yumai's mountains, new homes rise in orderly rows, and per capita disposable income has reached nearly 50,000 yuan. " Yumai is now a truly well-off town," said Basang Tsering, magistrate of Lhunze County.

As dusk spreads across the Yarlung TsangpoRiver, the gentle melody of the Guozhuang dance rises from the evening square, and people of the plateau dance with graceful steps. From plowing the first field to the democratic reform, from the inheritance of Tibetan opera to the guardianship of Yumai, this land lives on endlessly, its flame passed from generation to generation.

Reporter: Jiang Mengchen

Translator: Peng Qing, Zhi Xinghua

Reviewer: Hu Rongguo, Drakpa Wangchen