From Beijing to Tibet

Hello!

I arrived in Tibet today so thought I should update you on what I've been up to the last couple of weeks.

After I got back from North Korea I had a few days to spend until my pre-booked flight to Nepal so I did all the Beijing touristy things. I missed the sandstorm on the Monday (shame - it sounded quite impressive) but the city was still covered with a light layer of it when I arrived back on Tuesday. I sorted out my accomodation for the next few days and was staying in one of Beijing's many Hutons which was fun but a bit chaotic when you had cars and bikes trying to squeeze down the narrow lanes. I then spent a bit of time sorting out all of my North Korean purchases, catching up with some of the North Korean tour group in Beijing and generally just winding down after a busy week in the DPRK.

The next day I visited Tiananmen Square (it's very very big) and the Forbidden City (a bit of an anti-climax since it's all pretty much the same inside) and went to see my second embalmed corpse of the week when I went to see Chairman Mao. Interestingly, for someone who was responsible for the death of tens of millions, he still manages to command lots of respect and there were many people from all generations bowing at his statue and queueing to see his body.

One day I hired a bicycle which must have been about 300 years old and weighed about 10 tonnes and went off on a cycle around Beijing - not a task to be taken lightly considering the volume and quality of Beijing traffic. But it was actually lots of fun - bicycles have right of way so the cars have to swerve to avoid your erratic moves - and I took a trip up to the Lama Temple in the northern part of the city. It was pretty much like any other temple but it was good to see it and tick it off the list. That evening I went to see the Chinese Acrobatic Troupe who were really good - extremely talented but some of the girls were quite awfully ugly which ruined it a bit...

Another day I made an attempt to go to the Summer Palace but I was feeling a bit off colour that day so I abandoned it and just went back to the hostel to relax (plus I couldn't find the bus to take me there!). In the back of my mind was the Nepal trip and the would it/wouldn't it happen scenario. The tour company were to decide whether to cancel or not the day before I was supposed to fly to Chengdu (and then on to Kathmandu) so it was a bit of a nervous time. In the end they decided to abandon it which was probably the best move but I decided I would go to Chengdu anyway and perhaps go to Tibet or somewhere.

I ran out of time to do all the Beijing stuff so I still have to do the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. I get back to Beijing a few days early so that I can do the Trans-Siberian so I'll squeeze them in then.

Unfortunately the next day I woke up and didn't feel at all well. I had what turned out to be a bladder infection which wasn't very pleasant and I wasn't too keen on flying. But I decided to go anyway and once I'd go to Chengdu and found a place to stay, I took a couple of days to sweat it out (and sweat I did - it was quite disgusting). I thought it'd gone but it hadn't so I've started to take the antibiotics that I have with me and they seem to be doing the job.

Chengdu was a pretty decent place to just relax for a while and the hostel was quite easy going. It was very very hot though - around the 32-35C mark so I was forced to dig out my shorts and scare the locals. I met up with a friend of Cath's who was living nearby and looking after rescued bears - she was pretty sick of Chengdu though and counting the days until she could leave. I can understand that though - the Chinese could quite easily wear you down so we spent and evening complaining about all of the bad things in China.

I also visited the Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre and took lots of pictures of Giant Pandas chilling around and eating bamboo and stuff. It was quite cool and if you wanted you could get your picture taken with a panda but they wanted 50 quid so I didn't bother.

And so today I arrived in Tibet. I was up at 4:30am to get the flight and arrived here at 10:30am. I'm already sunburned and have a headache from the altitude but it's not too bad so I'm quite relieved really. I've met up with some people and we've booked a trip to Tibetan Everest Base Camp which might make up for the disappointment of not making it to the Nepalese Base Camp.

Tibet seems really nice but Lhasa is a bit of a mix. Parts of it (the Barkor area) are just like I expected Tibet to be and other parts are just like China, which is very sad because the Chinese are just forcing their culture upon the Tibetans. It was sad to see the Potala Palace with a Chinese Flag flying on top but that's just the way it is at the moment and nobody at government level seems to be too concerned about the Chinese attitude to Tibet.

Anyway, I'll let you know more about Tibet as I find it - I'm away for 4 days while I do base camp so don't cry if I don't respond to your emails!

All the best,
Gregor