No, not the Potala but the Dzong of Shigatse
Like a phoenix out ot the ashes
I’ve been to
Tibet three times 1998, 2009 and just now. Lots of changes have taken place to
a country that was hardly accessible in the first half of the 20th
century. Tibet is larger than the Tibet Autonomous Region; if I say Tibet,
however, I mean the Tibet Autonomous Region (西藏自治区) [1].
Tibet is part
of China as for instance Xinjiang (新疆). You might think that this is debatable, but according to the law of
nations it isn’t. Tibet had been isolated as a snail in its house, not wishing
to have contact to other nations or even foreign individuals. Tibet never
established foreign relations.
The
population of 2014 numbered 3,180,000, of which 90% were Tibetans and 8% were
Han-Chinese. Maybe in larger cities the percentage of Han-Chinese is a little
higher. Don’t forget that there are millions of tourists each year in Tibet –
mostly Han-Chinese: “The region aims to receive over 30 million tourists in
2020, …” [2]. It seems to be a lot, but tourists only stay a couple of days.
Unclear is the number of military personnel in Tibet, which might be
considerable.
The
roads have improved pretty much. There are some freeways and long stretches of
paved and well maintained roads; you might argue the reason for it, but it is
as it is. The harsh environment and the yearly floods during the monsoon season
lead to the need of constant repairs. I’ll write in another blogpost about it.
And roads in the west (the wild west of Tibet) are in lesser shape.
Road and parallel power lines
There is
the Qinghai–Tibet Railway from Golmud to Lhasa, which was completed 2005; I’ve
travelled with this railway in 2009. It was interesting to see the vastness of
a country, which is hardly inhabited. Since 2014 there has been the Lhasa–Shigatse
Railway, which I’ve seen, but not used. Another railway to Sichuan is under
construction.
The airport, a
tourist will use is near Lhasa – the Gonggar Airport. The airport near Shigatse
is called Peace Airport, but I’ve seen an awful lot of military installment
next to it.
The telephone
net is well developed. And the electrification of the country had made a leap
forward. There are already lots of electrically powered cars and bikes. This
also leads to lots of power lines going parallel to the roads; much to my
dismay as for photography.
Links:
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