Tibet

Every fall in China there is a weeklong national vacation called Golden Week. Some of the other students and I decided to spend out 10 days traveling to and around Tibet.

We left for Shanghai last Thursday (September 25), spent the night there and flew from Shanghai to Chengdu Friday morning. At Chengdu we were supposed to switch planes to fly to Lhasa in Tibet but the travel agency we were working with sent us a copy of our entrance permit not the original and we were denied entry. We spent the night in Chengdu while we waited for someone from the travel company to fly from Lhasa and bring the permit. We flew out Saturday morning and got to Lhasa Saturday afternoon.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been living in Nanjing where the sky is always gray with pollution, but the Tibetan sky was the bluest sky I think I’ve ever seen. You’re so high there is seems like you can almost reach the clouds.

We’d been warned a lot about the Tibetan altitude and the sickness that can accompany it. I thought we were doing really well until we had to walk up a flight of stair in a restaurant in Lhasa and one of my friends, Tess, fainted at the top. From then on we were a bit more careful.

That afternoon we visited Potala Palace, the Dali Lama’s winter palace, in Lhasa. It took us a little longer than usual to get around because we were so winded climbing the stairs.

The Tibetan people are devout Buddhists and take their religion seriously. Outside the palace I saw people on their hands and knees in prayer by the side of the road. Everywhere we went we saw prayer flags and people walking around with prayer wheels.

Sunday we started on our journey to the Everest base camp. On our way we stopped at Palcho Monastery in Gyanste as well as numerous other look-out points. I paid 5 kuai to ride a yak, a bit touristy but well worth the 75 cents.

Unfortunately, when we got to the Everest base camp it was overcast so you could barely see the bottom of the mountain. We didn’t get amazing pictures but I still think it was worth the trip.

We made our way back to Lhasa and visited the Jokhang Temple, which is surrounded by a huge market where people sell everything from yak leather bags to Tibetan jewelry and scarves.

After another night in Lhasa we headed to the countryside again to visit a holy lake and another small temple called Lamalang. Lamalang was my favorite sight. We were lucky to visit when the flowers were still in bloom and the small; tourist free (except for us) temple was surrounded by a bright garden. The only other people there were Tibetans who had come to worship. Before entering the temple they walk clockwise around it numerous times.

Friday morning we boarded the train in Lhasa to head back to Nanjing. The ride is 48 hours and had the potential to be a boring disaster. Fortunately, we’ve all been practicing our Chinese skills enough to make some friends. Friday night we met a group of about six Tibetan guys who sat in the dining car and only ordered beer. We started talking to them and before we knew it they were singing Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson songs for us.

We also managed to become favorites of the wait staff. (Not really) On the train they have food carts that sell snacks and you can buy a powdered tea called milk tea (奶茶). They ran out of the tea within the first day but for the next 36 hours we continued to ask every service person we saw for it. It got to the point where they would see one of us and just tells us that they were out of milk tea.

The trip was great, a bit strenuous and not really a vacation, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get another chance to go to Tibet so I’m glad I got took advantage of the opportunity. Now it’s back to Nanjing and back to Chinese class, at least until our field trip to Sichuan province in a couple weeks.

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