09:46, April 29, 2009

Zhang Tingfang clearly remembers her wedding day of Dec 31, 1971. While most couples at that time just bowed to a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong, her wedding was like a gala show.
Two of her classmates at Beijing Normal University put on huge dolls' heads and mimicked the days when the bride and groom fell in love. Then Zhang and her Tibetan husband Tsewang Gyumey together sang Chairman Mao's Glory.
Forty years on, Zhang and Tsewang often laugh when they recall how she used to be jokingly called a modern Princess Wencheng, and he, Songtsan Gampo - the mighty king of Tubo.

Zhang and Tsewang often take walks on the beautiful campus of Tibet University. No trace of the old tin-roofed sheds remains. Not far away is the grand bridge spanning the Lhasa River along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
While Zhang worked in the university until retirement, Tsewang later became president of the Tibet Nationalities Institute and Tibet Academy of Social Sciences.
Both their sons have settled down in Beijing. Recently, their eldest son came back to Tibet for a 3-year term with young cadres from all over the country to support Tibet's development.
"Tibet has experienced phenomenal growth which would have been impossible without help from the rest of the country," Zhang says.  Source: China Daily