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March - October 2005

Intrepid Season 2005 - China, Tibet, & Nepal (part III)

Brett Voegele
2005-11-19 14:41:04

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my way to Beijing in order to start my last trip of the season on Monday the 19th. That will be another 28-day trip identical to the one I just completed.

It was another interesting trip, though this time it wasn’t because of passengers dropping out or buying pets along the way. This trip was interesting for the fact that some of the population were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Obviously there were a lot of changes apparent to me, as I had previous trips with which to compare. However, one didn’t have to be overly perceptive to see through the veil of deception that had been put in place. There were flags everywhere – some that looked like prayer flags, though prayer flags emblazoned with the dates “1965-2005”. Other flags hanging from homes and public buildings were of the red-with-five-yellow-stars variety. Or how about the immaculately clean uniforms for the school children who were taking part in the festivities? Trust me – Tibetan school uniforms are generally anything but clean! There were new facades on many of the buildings around the Potala, where the main festivities took place. There was also a new park unveiled across from the Potala, which I must say is a beautiful improvement over the disco and decrepit buildings that occupied the space just a few short months ago. The Potala itself had been undergoing some renovations during the preceding months, and many of those were completed when we went through this time. However, the renovations also seemed to leave behind many video cameras and motion-activated microphones.

Pervasive throughout the planning of the anniversary, and the event itself, was fear, which explains why there weren’t many foreigners around. Stricter entry guidelines were imposed such that many foreigners couldn’t even make it into Tibet during a 3-4 week period. Foreigners who were in attendance for events in previous ...