Word: lhasa
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Hong Kong is old hat, Shanghai is oversold and even Lhasa is getting pass?. But Beijing? This formerly stodgy, sprawling, communist capital is the new thing. There is a rave on the Great Wall every summer, and Starbucks opened in the Forbidden City last October. But how do you separate the merely new from the truly hip? Here's our guide...
...Tibetan Buddhist sect, is hidden at 4,480 m in the remote and desolate snow-capped peaks of central Tibet. Founded in the 1180s by the first Karmapa, it is a mere 50 km, but a rocky two-and-a-half-hour drive, from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The road is little more than a path distinguishable from the rest of the moonscape by the occasional tire track. My Lhasa-born Tibetan driver has to stop twice to ask farmers the way. Finally we reach a rickety bridge over a fast-running, turquoise river at the base...
...smallest boy onto their shoulders to wiggle through an open window and unlock the door from the inside. Senior monks, too, have returned to their retreats, spending days, months and years in dark solitude, sustained only by food slipped into their cold rooms. Unlike the Summer Palace in Lhasa, where you can visit the former private rooms of the Dalai Lama, tourists don't get to see the Karmapa's old bedroom. Tsurphu hasn't become a museum: it is still a working monastery. We have arrived during a brief break in afternoon prayers and are able to walk inside...
...sensitive region on a Chinese visa application will mean instant rejection. Also, Tibet can only be entered from Nepal (by road) or from Golmud (road) and Chengdu (air). In addition, all visitors must be registered as part of an organized tour and take official guides almost anywhere outside Lhasa. A package is the simplest way to handle the bureaucracy, but far cheaper is a three-day trip bought in China or Nepal after which sightseers can go off on their own as long as they take government guides. Hiring one in Lhasa to Tsurphu costs from $50 per day. Without...
...Ouyang Xu, a cocky 33-year-old entrepreneur who opened the Himalaya Travel Agency last year, and took 700 Chinese to Tibet in six months. They multiply the impact of the many Chinese who have moved to Tibet in the past decade and now constitute more than half of Lhasa's population. Tibetan exiles argue that the influx dilutes the culture. Ouyang counters that Tibetans "don't want to be something people buy tickets to see."He says Tibetans want Chinese things: "If Chinese don't sing karaoke there, Tibetans will sing it themselves." He plans to import a fleet...