Languages are fundamental for an air hostess shuttling between Beijing and Lhasa.
China's civil aviation authorities told China Southwest Airlines to set up air routes to Lhasa in December 1998 according to Zeng Jin of Southwest Airlines. Like many of her friends in Tibet Zhoga said she had set her heart on living beyond the Tibetan Plateau since childhood. Many young Tibetan women now have more say in deciding their careers whereas in the past they were mostly confined to the kitchen and pasture. China Southwest Airlines started recruiting stewardesses from Tibet in June last year. Zhoga who was then a well-paid hospital worker in Lhasa competed with more than 300 other women to become an air hostess.