Lhasa is the provincial seat of Tibet Autonomous Region. In Tibetan, Lhasa means Holly Land or Buddhist Land. It has long been the political, economic, cultural and religious center of Tibet, with the splendid and majestic Potala Palace as the symbol of old ultimate integrated authority of politics and religion. Based on the advantages of natural resources and leveraging the comparative superiority, Lhasa exerts great efforts in developing its five unique industries, namely excavation, processing of agricultural and animal husbandry products, Tibet traditional medicine, new-type building materials and folk handicrafts. In 2007, Lhasa’s GDP totaled RMB 12 billion, with a per capita GDP of RMB 19,589 against the permanent-resident population of 460,000.

Situated on the alluvial plains in river valleys, Lhasa is one of the cities at the highest elevation in the world. With more than 3,000 hours of sunshine annually, it is thus called the “sunshine city”. Lhasa is surrounded by the omnipresent thermal springs that are economically valuable and therapeutically useful. The Qusan Hot Spring in Doilungdêqên County and the Dejong Hot Spring in Maizhokunggar County are well-known all over Tibet. The north of Lhasa is prosperous in animal husbandry, the middle is famous for the Lhasa River Valley and the south is dominated by the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River which fosters one of the good agricultural areas in Tibet with rich production of qingke, wheat, oilseeds and pulse.