| Medical insurance has covered the whole population in Tibet, and Tibetan people's life expectancy has increased from 35.5 to 68.2 years, Wu said. Penpa, a villager from Gurum Township in Tohlung Dechen District of Lhasa, attended the meeting as a grassroots representative. "My mum used to work for a lord. She had no shoes and not enough clothes to wear. Now, we are living in a house of 400 square meters. What a great change," he said. Penpa used to work in construction sites. Last year, he started to work as an administrator at an express delivery point of JD.com where he earns 4,500 yuan each month. "I feel that we lead a good life," he said. Jamyang Sherab, an officer of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), said at the meeting, "My family witnessed the democratic reform. As a descendant of the serfs in old Tibet, I became a PLA officer and was elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference successively." In Beijing, a forum was held on Thursday to commemorate the historic event in Tibet's history. You Quan, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, hailed the democratic reform in Tibet at the forum as a major move that followed the tide of the times, a great achievement of the CPC in resolving the Tibet issue and a tremendous force propelling the economic and social development in Tibet. He called for greater efforts to comprehensively implement the CPC's policies for governing Tibet, strengthen the CPC's leadership over Tibet work, strive for the people's well-being, and realize enduring peace and stability and greater development in the region. Six kilometers to east of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, a memorial hall marking the emancipation of the serfs was opened to the public on Thursday. The memorial hall, with an exhibition area of 3,500 square meters, displays 165 historical documents, 299 items, 331 pictures and four large settings related to the democratic reform in the region, reflecting the darkness, backwardness and barbarity of the old Tibet, as well as the great changes that have taken place in the socialist new Tibet. | 
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