国内英语资讯:Across China: New innovation improves the lives of Tibetan nomads_时事

国内英语资讯:Across China: New innovation improves the lives of Tibetan nomads

While conducting a summer research program in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province in 2011, he was touched by the repetitive hard work undertaken by local Tibetan women and came up with the idea of inventing the wheelbarrow.

"Their backs become bent from the daily chore. But without collecting dung, their families have no chance of survival," said Wang.

Over the last six years, Wang has revised his design eight times to best suit the needs of the nomads.

One of the biggest concerns for both Wang and Purang was maintenance.

Except for the motorcycles some men now use in place of horses to herd their livestock, nomads rarely use any machinery and have limited mechanical knowledge. As their temporary settlements move with the seasons, they have limited access to repair shops in nearby townships.

Purang previously had an iron trolley but it became useless after a year as he couldn't find a repair shop to fix its damaged tire and replace rusty screws.

To prevent the plastic wheelbarrow ending up the same way, Wang visited nomad settlements to test many different samples of his product.

Earlier this year, the product's design passed national testing and evaluation. The current model uses solid tires to avoid punctures, and is made of materials resistant to ultraviolet light to prevent the plastic aging. It is operated manually with no power source.

Using only a few screws and nuts, the wheelbarrow is made up of eight components and can be assembled in three minutes. It weighs less than 10 kg, making it is easy to transport when nomads move to another area.