I don't know how they distinguished themselves. They had lots of ramen. Macaroni was hard to find. Candy bars, instant soup and canned tuna were out of the question. Like a lot towns in Asia, Gyantse had a town disk jockey.
Some business appoints itself to the position.
They place speakers in their windows and play TV or movies at full volume, loud enough so the distortion overwhelms the voices, but m akes the machine guns sound really cool, all day long. I'm not kidding. Eventually karaoke clubs took over the town volume requirements. That lasted until midnight or so. Then the dogs started barking and howling at each other.