The sun was coming up over the mountains as we woke up on the rattling train. The night before, we left Beijing and began our trip to Lhasa, Tibet. We had already traveled a long way. We were near Xi’an in Shaanxi province, the old western capital. Our train ride would take approximately forty eight hours from Beijing. Only our excitement kept people sane, I think. Most passengers around us had never been to Tibet before, and you could tell they were excited to see so many new things. It made it easier to get along, and we just shared conversation and food to pass the time. The train was quite new and comfortable. It had English translations, ambient music, clean services, sink and bathroom areas, and some power outlets. It was used for high altitude trips, and each bed is equipped with a little oxygen outlet. We had the hard-sleepers with six beds to a room. I had a bottom bunk and my friend Ben had the one above it. So, we could just sit on the bottom during the day, and didn’t have to fight for a chair in the hallway. We were in good company too. Two Tibetan girls sat across from us and a business woman who liked to give us food. She said she admired me and Ben’s appetites, and wished she could eat as much. We got a lot of information from the Tibetan girls. They taught us some Tibetan words that might be useful, and gave us some tips on travel. At 9:00 A.M. we stopped in Xi’an station, and then shortly continued westward.
The landscape became very arid and cold. That afternoon, we traveled through some mountainous terrain with lots of tunnels. All the mountain sides had been carved up like a flight of stairs for farming reasons. I couldn’t imagine there being any crops on those mountains though. It was very dry and rough. The West of China is truly poor. This was the first time I got to see it for real though. There were some old, communist looking cities along the tracks. Transportation and people for that matter were very sparse. Old cave dwellings covered the mountain sides. People inhabited these caves about fifty years ago. People may not live in these caves anymore, but these people are still very poor. At 4:00 P.M. we stopped in Lanzhou of Gansu province. We got to step outside the train for about ten minutes to stretch and get a breath of fresh air. From where we were, Lanzhou looked run down and poor for a large city. It felt deserted and was eerily quiet.
At about 6:00 P.M. we entered Qinghai province, which is adjacent to Tibet Autonomous Region. We were still only about half way through the trip though. We stopped in Xiding, the capital of Qinghai. Xiding marks the beginning of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which is the world’s highest altitude railway. As the sun lowered, our train began to enter the hinterlands.
The next morning I woke up at around 7:30 and got cleaned up and ready by 8:00. It was still pitch black outside. The train staff came around and passed out air tubes to passengers in case they were feeling bad. You could stick the little tube into the oxygen vent. We were still in Qinghai province that morning. We were in a very remote area, and not a single light could be found outside the train. We were traveling south as the sun rose to our east over the snowy mountains. The sunlight gave the mountains a blue aura and it was very pristine. By 9:00 A.M. it was light outside. The sun was shining with all its glory. No pollution or clouds to block it here. The sky was a brilliant blue and totally unspoiled. The train passed through flat mountain valleys. We spotted some groups of Tibetan antelope, wild donkeys, and yak that morning. They would become a common sight the closer we got to Lhasa. We spent most of the day just looking out the windows. That afternoon, we passed Co Na Lake, the highest freshwater lake in the world. It was completely frozen though. We could tell we were getting closer to civilization as small settlements and herders showed up outside. Not much further.
We arrived at the Lhasa station around 9:00 P.M. that night. We got a taxi to the city for forty kuai, which took about twenty minutes. Lhasa was all lit up and we could see it from the distance with the Potala Palace hovering above it all. The city lies tucked in between the mountains, and we made a big loop around the mountain side to get into the city. The first thing I noticed was how small and low the buildings were. The roads didn’t have that busy, loud feeling like in the East. There are few visitors to Tibet in the winter, so we got a hotel room for half price (140 kuai). We could feel the difference in the oxygen level. It gave a slight dizzy feeling that night. It usually takes a day or two to adjust and get used to the altitude.
The next day, I got up at 9:00 as the sun rose over the mountains, making the Potala shimmer. We walked to the Potala Palace (Budalagong). It only took about five minutes. Pilgrims were circling the perimeter in a clockwise fashion that morning while spinning their prayer wheels, and murmuring sutras. We took in the sight of the palace before we went inside. We had to climb the hill to the entrance. We had to stop every minute to catch our breath. We bought tickets and went inside. It was dark and smelled old. It’s a really magnificent structure, and is filled with relics and treasures of the Tibetan people. Most of the people inside were pilgrims giving respects and prayers to various deities. Tibetan Buddhism is such a mystery to me, and it was hard to appreciate all the things I was looking at. Everything had some kind of meaning, but I was only seeing the surface.
The weather felt nice so we spent some time walking around and then found some lunch. It was the middle of January but it wasn’t very cold. The mornings and nights were cold, but in the afternoon the sun was so strong we didn’t even need a coat. We just sat and watched the people for a while. Lhasa is maybe 85% Tibetan people and 15% Han Chinese people. The Tibetan people look different. They have darker skin, and straighter noses. They don’t tend to wash their hair, which is usually long. People tend to wear colorfully decorated clothing common to Tibet. Women wear colorful jewelry sometimes, and put beads in their hair. The sun is so strong so many people wear wide brimmed cowboy hats. Some women walk around carrying their babies in a bundle on their backs.
That day, we went to the Jokhang Monastery. It’s another holy place in Lhasa, but it’s also become the heart of the cities commercialism. Outside the monastery gates, pilgrims prostrate themselves on the ground throughout the day, and circle around like at the Potala. The Bharkor Bazaar also encircles the monastery selling just about everything you could imagine being in Tibet. Most of the merchandise is fake and incredibly overpriced for foreigners though. You have to bargain hard to get an honest price. I admit I just got fed up with some salespeople and bought things without trying hard enough for a decent price. We payed a monk at the monastery for tickets and went inside to take a look. It was similar to the Potala Palace. It had interesting architecture, and relics, but we couldn’t really appreciate its meaning. It was just a nice sight. After the Jokhang, we wandered around for about two hours and then had dinner. A bike cart driver first showed us a little teahouse that he said we should try. It was just a crummy little place. It was dark, dirty, and everyone sat around on some filthy sofas. It was only local Tibetan people so we stayed for a drink. The locals inside were so puzzled when two outsiders came to sit. We got a thermos of Tibetan sweet tea for one kuai. So, we enjoyed our short stay there, and then left to find some food. We found a restaurant nearby the monastery. I got a big thermos of Tibetan butter tea. It tastes like a mild butter but is thin like tea. It was very good and is a famous Tibetan drink. Ben doesn’t like milk so I had to drink the whole thing. The food was just alright though. We never found really god food during our stay in Tibet. There are too many foreigners in Lhasa and too many restaurants catering to foreign tourists. It’s hard to find anything authentic. People there were usually surprised when I spoke some Chinese to them. I think they’re used to seeing the newbie tourists who are always catered to. After being in China for a while those people get annoying even though we’ve all been there at some point. Many Tibetan people can speak at least a few English words. People always said “hello” to me as I passed by. Shopkeepers said, “Hello, lookie, lookie!” Other people say, “Hello, how are you doing?” and “I love yoouuuuu!”
The next day, we went back to the Bhaarkor Market, and I bought some souvenirs and a wide brimmed hat to keep off the sun. After shopping, we paid a visit to the Norbulinka horticulture gardens, which was disappointing. The tickets were expensive, upward of one hundred kuai, and there was really nothing unique to see. It was a large, walled in garden complex with some temples. There were no unique plants and nothing of real interest. If you happen to visit Lhasa in the spring or summer time it might be worth a visit, but still probably not. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. We just wandered around the city and relaxed at the hotel.
The next day we decided to take a bus to a different city to the southwest of Lhasa named Rekaze (Shigatse in English). At the bus station, a crowd surrounded us asking to take us on their bus. We agreed to go with one group, and paid one hundred kuai for two tickets. It’s illegal for foreigners to travel outside of Lhasa without a certified guide (which are really expensive), and illegal to travel along with the Tibetan people, but we took the chance. If the police find you, the worst they can do is give a small fine and sent you back to Lhasa. So, the driver quickly ushered me onto the bus, and sat me at the very back. The bus was full of Tibetans and a few Chinese. Definitely, the most uncomfortable bus ride, but it was worth it in the end. We were in the back with our legs crammed up against the seats in front of us. The ride would take about four hours. Once the bus was full of people, we set off. We drove for about thirty minutes when a Tibetan man came and told me to keep low since we were coming to a police checkpoint. I just put my hat low over my face as we approached. We passed through without any problems, and continued on. The landscape was mountainous and arid the whole way. The road followed a sparkling river the whole way through the mountains. The road was new and quite good, but still dangerous. It was narrow, had sharp turns, and avalanches seemed commonplace. Fallen rocks blocked half the road in a few places. The highway was dotted with small villages. It was very different from Lhasa. Most of these people lived in small wood and brick homes with flat roofs. Some are stuccoed or painted white and have very colorful details painted on them. Every hour or so, we would take a break and get off the bus. Everyone would just go across the road and take a piss on the side of someone’s house or restaurant, and then shuffle back onto the bus. We kept going further to what seemed like nowhere. There was very little along the highway now. The landscape became more and more arid with a few sand dunes even. At one point, a group of smiling Tibetans blocked the road and started throwing dirt at the bus. It was a friendly act. A Tibetan guy next to us said it is a custom to throw dirt on your clothes to grant safe travels.
At 3:30 P.M. we arrived in Rekaze and quickly walked to a nearby hotel. The people at the hotel welcomed us warmly. Again, there were no problems with a foreigner being there. We got a hotel room for eighty kuai. It was good, except that it was freezing cold. Apparently, that day was a small festival day in Rekaze. We decided to go out and see some things. We decided to walk to the Jashilunpo monastery. It was actually being rebuilt and closed down. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. We walked about thirty minutes. I saw a lot of empty police cars along the way, but no cops. Lucky it was a festival day. Some little children were excited to see me and helped us find the entrance to the monastery. They told us to walk up the hill. A flock of sheep came ambling down as we took in the view of the city. All the buildings were very small and low. It was much more authentic than Lhasa. We walked up a big hill to get to the entrance. A Tibetan dog stood guard there ready to kill, but it was chained down. We found the construction foreman and he let us go inside the monastery to look. There was nothing to see, but again we got a great view. We found a Muslim family restaurant near our hotel and had some dinner and then went back to the hotel. That night, I had to wear three pairs of pants, shirts, socks, and my coat, but it was still freezing.
The next morning, we got up early to catch a bus back to Lhasa. I jumped on the bus and waited for it to fill up with passengers. Lucky we went the day before because, that morning police were swarming all over the place. We eventually filled up and left Rekaze. Its 280 kilometers drive to and from Lhasa. Another four hours, but it wasn’t bad.
We got back to Lhasa uneventfully and immediately went to buy train tickets to our next destination. We couldn’t get tickets straight to Chengdu and would have had to wait a week so we bought tickets to Xi’an instead. We spent another day in Lhasa just relaxing, and then left the next morning.
The Tibetan people are very friendly and down-to-earth. They live very naturally and their culture is very spiritually based. I can hardly begin to understand their complicated culture, but I gained a good impression of the Tibetan people when I was there. Tibet is technically a part of China, which was “liberated” in 1951, but is really nothing like China. Chinese business, government control, and language are the only major signs of Chinese presence in Tibet. Go outside of Lhasa and it’s less and less like China.
