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Cering Yangzom, an ethnic Monba living deep in Tibet's mountains, never thought her pastime singing to the odd tourist traveling through her small village would ever become more than a pleasant diversion.
But the hobby has earned the 50-year-old woman a small fortune by local standards.
Raking in more than 10,000 yuan (1,627 U.S. dollars) a year by serenading sightseers visiting Shannan, she now contributes a majority of her family's income.
She says she owes much of her success to a group of visiting officials who encouraged her to turn her talents toward profit and provided her with a small start-up fund to help her efforts.
"The officials opened my mind," she said. "I am expecting to promote the songs and culture of Monba to other parts of the country."
As one of 50,000 Monba minorities in China, it's important for Cering to keep the folk traditions alive. Thanks to the financial jumpstart from the visiting officials, she says she can now afford to spend her days teaching her songs to the youth in her village.
Cering's is a story that is becoming more frequent with "aid-Tibet cadres," as the officials who travel to the region to become ad-lib benefactors have been titled, vowing not to let Tibet fall behind China's rapid development.
They are part of an aid project launched 20 years ago which has seen nearly 6,000 cadres and technical professionals dedicate resources toward helping the region's development. So far more than 26 billion yuan has been raised.
Since the aid project was launched, seven batches of professionals from across the country have been sent throughout Tibet. They work in a wide range of areas including economic development, technology, education, medicine and science. Tenures of the cadres usually last three years.
They have brought Tibet the capital it needs for development as well as ideas and experiences from the more developed regions in China.
"The project has effectively promoted Tibet's ability of self-development," said Liao Yidong, deputy chairman of the Tibet regional federation of industry and commerce.
As of 2013, Tibet's economy has seen double-digit growth for a consecutive 21 years.
Despite this, Tibet still ranks among the least developed in the country.
Liao said the project has developed from a one-way aid efforts to win-win.
The unique resources of the region, whose development was hampered by its high-altitude and poor infrastructure, have transformed into a development edge thanks to the project.
Bottled mineral water from the region's snow mountains, hand-made crafts, wool fabrics and dairy products from Tibet's extensive pastures have gained popularity in markets at both home and abroad.
For residents on the high plateau, vegetables were rare until the aid-Tibet cadres from Shouguang City of eastern Shandong Province helped build a vegetable base in Bainang county, Xigaze prefecture.
Shouguang is famous as a major vegetable production and trading center in China. Officials from the city brought local planting experience to Bainang and made vegetable production a pillar of industry with an annual output of 37.5 million kg in 2013.
It brought along with it a per capita income increase of 1,360 yuan in the county, who's population is 40,000.
The livelihood of the Tibetans, like Cering Yangzom and Bainang residents, has been well improved thanks to economic development.
Latest official statistics have shown the per capita net income of Tibetan farmers and herdsmen has seen an eight-fold growth over the past two decade and stood at over 6,500 yuan last year.
"It is a breakthrough for China in its strategy to administrate Tibet," Hu Yan, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said. "It is also a part of China's efforts to build the modernized national governance capacity and system."
