Tibet (Lhasa) - July 2010

Somehow I convinced Alex to come to Tibet with me. I always wanted to go to Tibet, and I made a pact with Julian back in 2007 that we would go visit Tibet together in 2010. Now I don't know where Julian is, but I made it to Tibet in 2010 finally!

The 4 of us flew in from all parts of the world to meet in Lhasa: Limin from Beijing, Alex from Nepal, Marco and I from Nanjing. We met in Lhasa on July 16, 2010 and started our 10-day trip together.

Lhasa is a beautiful city. Located in a valley surrounded by chains of Himalayan mountains and the Lhasa river, the city is clean and quiet. The air the thin at 3650m is thin, so the sky looks extra blue to me. Our hotel was near the Jokhang Temple, next to the Barkhor Bazaar in the old town. Along the narrow streets, there erects many two-floor traditional tibetan houses. These houses have typical white wall and black roofs, with colour windows carefully decorated. Tibetan people are darker than the Chinese. They have round faces and red cheeks, and look very strong and healthy.

We stayed in Lhasa for 2-3 days, and visited Norbulinka Palace, Jokhang Temple, and Potala Palace.

Our first stop was Norbulinka Palace. The palace is a bit out from the city center, and used to be the summer palace for Dalai Lama. In the palace, we saw many Tibetan who sincerely offer their prayers. One part of the palace had a beautiful garden.

We then visited Jokhang Temple, which is very close to where we lived. We were amazed by the crowded souvenir markets - the Barkhor Bazaar. Hundreds of visitors come here to shop for all kinds of souvenirs, and the beautiful turquoise is the local favouriate (we later spent many hours shopping for turquoise necklaces). Just in front of the Jokhang Temple, many religious tibetans keel down and offer their prayers. Inside of the Jokhang temple, again we saw beautifully decorated traditional Tibetan buildings. The rooftop of the temple (a 4 floor building) is undergoing some renovation, and we saw people singing and dancing while paving the roof. It's nice to see how much fun they are having even when working. Also from the roottop, we saw the beautiful view of the Potala Palace, situated on top of a hill on the other side of the city.

When we finally arrived at Potala Palace, it was almost closing, so we had to rush to climb hundreds of stairs to reach to the entrace on top of the hill (we then heard the palace is 14 floors tall. The Palace is divided into two parts, the red palace and the white palace. The palace is a sacred place for it is where the Dalai Lama lives. The palace is lit by yuk butter lamp, and had a beautiful smell. From the Potala Palace, we had a bird-view of the entire Lhasa city.

When we finished our visit in Lhasa, we just walked around the old town and got completely lost in its narrow streets. We found several good local restaurants and enjoyed the momos and yuk butter tea, and we even found a local bar where we hang out almost every night while we were in Lhasa.

It is a warm and pretty place, I love Lhasa.

By the way, during that month we spent in Tibet and China, Alex was trying to grow his little beard. He saved it for almost 1.5 months until I finally convinced him to shave it off before meeting my mom...lol....this is how he looks!