"It's great! I never expected the development of Tibet could be so tremendous," an excited Hu Zhihai says, waving his walking stick while visiting the Exhibition Marking the 60th Anniversary of the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing.

Hu, 82, is a veteran of the Korean War (1950-1953), though his fashionable sunglasses and cap make him look younger.

"I used to be afraid of altitude sickness and I thought I was too old to go to the plateau," Hu continues. "However, now, my eagerness to witness a prosperous Tibet has conquered my worries. I'd like to go there with my grandson on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway."

Hu wanted to be assigned to work in the Tibet autonomous region shortly after he came back from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1955, but he didn't get the chance.

The free exhibition opened on June 15 and will run until Friday. It presents more than 500 pictures, and other historical documents, diagrams and multimedia projects in three exhibition halls, covering various aspects of the development of Tibet autonomous region, including the construction of infrastructure, education, environmental protection and people's everyday lives.

Cultural Palace of Nationalities employee Hu Yonghua says about 100,000 people had attended the exhibition by July 1. Many of the visitors were soldiers, employees of State-owned institutions and college students.

Chen Junfeng and Li Zhuang, both 22, are classmates.

"After viewing this exhibition, I found life there can be very modern," Chen says.

"Since Tibet has been developing so much, I'm considering working there after graduation," Li adds.

A booth in the center of the exhibition showing a modern Tibetan family's living room may remind those away from Tibet of their home far away. The 19-year-old Tashi Phuntsok, a senior high school student from Xigaze in the south of the autonomous region, was one of them.

"I've been studying in Hebei province for a few years, and maybe I will also continue my higher education away from Tibet in the coming future, but I will go back to my beautiful hometown to make a contribution there," he says.

At center stage of the eastern exhibition hall, there is a large screen showing the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. "It's so amazing to build a railway on a plateau of such high altitude," Qiao Liang, another visitor and ex bus driver, says.

This year is the fifth anniversary of the completion of the railway. Qiao says he also appreciated the juxtaposition of pictures showing the contrast between today's Tibet and six decades ago. "This gave us a direct feeling of how earthshaking the changes are," Qiao says.

China Daily