Tibet, China's autonomous region, rarely evokes a positive image among Chinese people or for that matter anyone else across the world. The improvised Himalayan region mostly occupies space in the media for its Buddhist affiliation, or when Chinese authorities are busy silencing the insurgent activities.

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However, it now appears that Tibet desperately wants to break free from the mould of negative stereotype. And the one unique solution that it has opted for is to go big on the 'cashless system'.

It turns out that the economic backward region of Tibet is taking gigantic steps towards 'cashless society'.

The region's restaurants, retails shops, and movie theaters have apparently given up on 'hard currency'. Instead, they are making all their business transactions through online payments.  This fact has been validated by Alipay, China's leading online payment service provider.

Alipay claimed that nearly 83.3 percent of payments in Tibet were transacted through smartphones in 2015, which surprisingly puts the Buddhist region ahead of all other leading Chinese cities. This was fourth year in row that Tibet topped the country in mobile payments.

The figures on online payment are equally showing robust growth in the current year.   

"This year's online transactions rose significantly compared to previous years," Norbu, an employee at a People's Bank of China branch in Lhasa, said.

"Partly because more stores accept online payments, but more importantly, it shows a change in consumption and payment habits among the public in Tibet."

Meanwhile, incoming tourists have been equally left surprised by how Tibetans have adopted themselves to digital payment. Most of them are finding it difficult to draw the parallel between Tibet's economic backwardness and region's astounding success in digital payment.    

TagsTibet, Tibet Cashless, Tibet economy, china