(Xinhua is the Official Press Agency of the People's Republic of China)

LHASA (Nov. 2) XINHUA - A new pharmaceutical factory making traditional Tibetan medicines has gone into production in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The factory is named after a "sacred spring" in Lhasa, and uses the spring water, or "magical water", as local residents call it, in its production.

Located in the western suburbs of Lhasa, the Xungbalhaqu Tibetan Medicine Factory has cost 4.2 million yuan (nearly 500,000 US dollars), and can produce more than 20 kinds of Tibetan medicines.

It is being jointly run by the Aid Fund for Tibetan Development and the Tibetan Medicine Hospital of the Nagqu Prefecture, which has sent a dozen experts and technicians to work in the factory.

It is also one of the autonomous region's aid-poor programs, with all its employees recruited from Doilungdeqen, a poor suburban county of Lhasa.

Before the new factory was founded, the autonomous region had three major Tibetan medicine factories, in Lhasa, the Qamdo Prefecture, and the Nyalam County. There are also a number of small factories run by various TibetanMedicine Hospitals.