Chinese in Tibet

Without getting into political discussions, we thought the occupation of Tibet must be mentioned in a blog entry.

Already on our journey to Tibet, we we were presented a less pleasing sight: an array of Chinese army trucks (long as far as the eye could see) headed for Tibet:

From ASIA - TIBET - The journey to Tibet

Then once in Lhasa it is impossible to miss the soldiers which are everywhere, fully armed with machine guns.
On the streets:

From ASIA - TIBET - Lhasa

or on rooftops:

watching for any sign of disturbance... (BTW: Chinese soldiers don't like to be photographed so excuse the quality of these pics taken in quite a hurry)

What is maybe less apparent without knowing how the system works (and unfortunately it works, "been there seen that" in our home town): huge industrial zones are being built, and guess who gets works. We know that unfortunately it only takes a generation's time and demographics get changed irreversibly.

Also, due to the strict regulations, Tibet remains closed to independent travelers and the only way around this is to book a tour with a travel agency. In addition to the Chinese visa, special Tibet travel permit is required, which is frequently checked (already on the train to Tibet and at many 'pitstops' along the way to Nepal...)

A further typical communistic method of "tender care" of traditions of a culture, that we were also very familiar with, is to build communistic monuments everywhere. Sorry Mr. Mao, we do not intend to give you the satisfaction by taking or posting pictures of it.

Let us end this post by expressing our hopes that the Tibetan culture is strong enough so that in some form or another it will survive - the world would be poorer without this amazing culture...