Wednesday and Thursday - becoming a blur...

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Wednesday was a late start kind of day. We all had little things to do or sleep to catch up on. In the afternoon we all went shopping at the bookstore area of town which has become a little bit of a tourist area - lots of glitz but not much substance. The bookstores are still good. For dinner, we all went out as the guests of a friend of DP and enjoyed Yunnan food for a change - lots of grass, fungus and mushrooms. Yes, it was vegetarian.

Thursday morning was an early start at 8:30 heading uptown to the 4th ring road and the China Tibet Institute. We met with the vice-head at 9:15 and spent some time chatting and reminiscing over past trips. The highlight was the visit to their newly opened Tibetan Cultural Museum.

If I was asked to sum it up in one word --- 'fantastic.' They did a great job. They have two floors of exhibits and a significant amount of art in the form of sculpture, paintings and miscellaneous objects such as block prints and woodcarvings. After a really relaxed and enjoyable time in the galleries we went for an excellent vegetarian lunch at the recommendation of our beloved senior Professor at the institute. The vegetarian restaurant was very near my favorite restaurant in that part of town - a place I used to go to for peace and quiet on previous trips.

After lunch we went to the Institute's bookstore and picked up a number of publications that we knew they would have. Getting late in the day and not wanting to be too tired for our next appointment we left the Institute and returned to the hotel - still without visiting the Yonghegong Temple which was very close to the Institute. With luck we will visit Yonghegong in the morning. I don't have to leave the hotel for the airport until late in the day in order to catch my 8:30 flight to Hong Kong.

Pictures to follow........

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