The first signs of Tibet.

Zhongdian aka Shangra-la

As we travelled to Zhongdian the landscape slowly changed and what was ricefields slowly gave way to a sort of brown pastureland. These were seemingly unoccupied except for some sort of large wooden clothlines which clustered together at random points and whose purpose I still do not know. The bus passed up higher until the point where the hills surrounding us were above the snow line and soon afterwards we arrived in Zhongdian quite breathless. Although we weren't breathless due to the scenery, which was, quite remarkable. It was the altitude that was knocking the wind from our sails. Sitting at 3200m Zhongdian is only just above the caution zone for altitude (3000m) but I am glad we had not gone any higher. Upon making our way to a backpackers I couldn't help but notice just how quickly I was short of breath especially when walking up a small incline to our chosen location. Upon exploring the old town of Zhongdian, which was much smaller than the previous two towns, I was loathe to admit just how drained I was feeling. The shallow slopes leading up to the temple overlooking the town required several breathers, and the 50 or so stairs making up the final ascent had to be taken very slowly.

At the top the temple afforded some interesting views and one of the largest prayer wheels ever. After returning to the town and getting some dinner I was heading back to the restaurant by myself when I stumbled on a large gathering of Tibetans in the town square preforming some sort of traditional dance. Nearly everyone in the square was moving in a large circle and doing some basic dance. It looked like anyone could join in as there were a few foreigners in there, although most were, like me, on the outskirts taking photos. Actually, I took a video instead cause the light was failing and photos were coming out a bit stink.

I enquired as to this seemingly authentic festival dance when I got back to the guest house and the owner advised me that they used to have them only during real festivals whereas they are now held whenever it was a fine evening. Further prompting lead to a few more interesting facts. These dances were now held so often due to government encouragement. Also, 4 years earlier when Kevin (the owner) arrived in Zhongdian, the "Old Town" was just a mud village, and the rather large new town did not exist. (The new town would be roughly comparable to central Hamilton (including height) as long as you completely removed all surrounding suburbs.) This was a classic example of the beginnings of development, Chinese style. Once the government picks an area for development it pours money into it. Zhongdian was clearly one of these areas and being heavily renovated while we were there. I later came to discover this trend all over China. One would have to assume that the Olympic Games has something to do with it.

I must admit that despite all the lack of authenticity, the old town was, once again, rather nice. The afore mentioned square had a whole bunch of stalls selling yummy kebab skewers for 1 or 2 yuan a piece and the Tibetan populace did give the place a friendly vibe.

The next day we went to the towns monastery, 3km out of town. The bus which normally led there only went 1km in the right direction as the road was being fixed. While walking to the monastery we were rather amused by the Chinese road workers. Firstly, road workers in china don't get all the modern equipment available in NZ due to, I assume, the economic structure of the country. China, with a massive labor surplus, takes full advantage by employing masses of ditch diggers and only minimal equipment. 1 generator, 1 small steam roller, and loads of shovels and pick axes. The amusing part? It's not uncommon to see people digging ditches in full business suits.

The Monastery itself was beautiful from a distance, so-so from close up, and, like temple in the town and the road leading up to the monastery, in the middle of renovation. I'll save the full extent of my ramble about the Chinese ability to completely miss the point on culture at this point and state a simplified version saying that they have very little in the way of authentic cultural sights left. With this particular monastery they started by burning down the temples during the cultural revolution and now they're putting all sorts of modern facilities that seem to completely contradict the Buddhist teachings. Once renovation is complete, they'll then charge a price completely out of proportion to the rest of the market as if they've actually done something good. All this does is make for for a rather lacklustre tourist site robbed of any of the charm that it may otherwise have held. If you want to come to China and see any ancient sights; wait until after the games and avoid the better known sights as you can be sure that there will be thousands of Chinese tourists, a cable car, touts, and nothing of any historic value left. I should mention at this point that China is massive and they have luckily missed some of the more remote places so there's still plenty to see. And of course there's still modern communist sights of interest.

So anyway.. Then following day we walked up some nearby hill to find another temple being reconstructed and then after some hastily changed plans, made preparations for leaving the next day.

As just mentioned, our plans changed about this point. Originally we were planning on trying to see if we could make our way to Lhasa (The capital of Tibet) from here. If that proved impractical or too costly we planned on heading straight to Chengdu to take the train from there. Now I imagine no-one who wasn't trying to get to Tibet even heard about this, but about 2 weeks earlier some possibly well meaning, hypocritical, severely annoying Americans decided to screw things up for anyone planning on heading there. The story was never completely clear but somewhere between 2 and 4 Americans and 0 and 1 Tibetans either, burned a Chinese flag in front of authorities, or waved a free Tibet flag at some base camp or something. Whatever. Their obviously inflammatory actions resulted in a massive over-reaction by Beijing. Thanks guys.. You're sooo cool. Now you can brag to all your friends at home for having acheived absolutely nothing. How about a free Iraq protest in Baghdad. At least then you'll get a free visit to Guantanamo bay. So Beijing decided that until about now absolutely no permits were going to be being issued for Tibet. A day or two earlier they were being issued for Lhasa only and required a mandatory guide (actually enforced) following you around all day.. And of course you were expected to pay well for this pleasure. This kinda defeated the purpose of going there. What I had found through a little research though is what is referred to as the back door into Sichuan. This trip involves heading along the border of the TAR (Tibet Autonomous Prefecture) well up onto the Tibetan plateau and had been referred to by some as more Tibetan that Tibet. This was our new plan. Skirt the border of Tibet then either head to down to Chengdu or head up towards Kashgar. (Kashgar borders Khzakstan)

What happens next is, of course, in my next entry.