No T for Me

Whilst I was travelling in Yunnan in January there were occasional whiffs that I was able to pick up of an ancient civilisation, hidden high up on a lofty plateau. Bare rock, high winds, and flags fluttering above isolated monasteries. One of the last, real exotic places on Earth. Everytime I looked up the mountains in Yunnan I could see them leading me up and drawing me on.

I am of course talking about Tibet. Or the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I want to go. I want to see the almost alien looking, conspicuously uninhabited Potola Palace. I want to see crimson-robed nomads living in air so thin I'd be sick. I want to see the tallest mountain on earth.

So back in March I'd put out feelers to plan a hideously expensive trip there this July. Hideously expensive as all Foreigners need a guide and cannot use public transport. However 60 years ago Tibet was "liberated" by the PRC (how does liberation=conquest???) and the government fears that the Tibetans will celebrate this anniversary so hard they will throw things at Han people and thus be shot in return. And they don't want blonde students like me wandering around with my pink point-and-shoot seeing this. They hadn't announced in it in March but as they were holding the celebrations in July I figured better to spend my time and money planning a trip to some other Equally Interesting Place.

And my suspicions have been confirmed. Foreigners are not allowed in to the Tibetan Autonomous Region for several weeks from June 25th.

I want to go to Tibet before the influx of Han (majority of Chinese are Han) turns it into another identikit province, just like all the others. Glass skyscrapers, McDonalds and KTV. If the Chinese government was serious about preserving Tibet they'd limit Han immigration. Tibet could be modernised, if that is desirable, without destroying it. However the more Han there, the less Tibetan it is and thus the calls for independence just melt away...