NYINGTRI, China: In a room warmed by an open wood stove, Baima says her family converted their white-brick house into a hotel as China's Communist leadership ushers tens of millions of tourists to the politically sensitive region of Tibet.

Surrounded by mist-covered mountains, nearly 500km from the capital Lhasa and close to a disputed border with India, most of the houses in her remote village of Tashigang have followed suit and turned into homestays.