Tibet Trip Day 9/10

Chengdu, China/Kaohsiung, Taiwan

We arrove in Xining, Qinghai Province, China, in the late morning. I did manage to fall asleep on the train and was hoping to wake up before day break. The highest altitude the train reached was 16,500 feet which I recorded on my altimeter, but then by the time I went to sleep, we had yet to fall below 10,000 feet.

I was hoping to be awake for the change to lower altitudes to see if I noticed, but by the time I woke up, the sun was up, we were at 8,000 feet and it was distinctly warmer and easier to breathe. We didn't descend much further as Xining lies at about 7,000 feet, and from Xining we flew to Chengdu.

Xining was an interesting place, as Qinghai Province is a genuine melting pot area with the convergence of Tibetan influence, Muslim Uighur influence from Xinjiang Province to the west of Qinghai and north of Tibet, and ethnic Han Chinese. Ethnically, Uighurs are Turkic and resemble people from central Asia.

There didn't appear to be any discord between the different ethnicities, possibly because no one was occupying someone else's land, and the mix of peoples was probably just normal, regardless of what government was in place.

We just had a few hours in Xining before heading for the airport, and did some touristy things, including going to the Islamic Grand Mosque and a historical site documenting Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek's involvement in the area before the Chinese Civil War, after which the Communists came to power.

Pentax ZX-5n Nikon N70, Kodak BW400CN

It was quite interesting that the Chinese preserved this piece of history, as it was Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists that the Communists were fighting. It was very strange seeing the Nationalists' emblematic star, which is now a part of Taiwan's national flag, hanging above the doors. But the defeat of the Nationalists and their departure to Taiwan was definitive, and there was never a serious movement on the mainland to bring the Nationalists back. They were never a real threat on the mainland after the war.

And Sun Yat-sen is respected by both China and Taiwan as the person who was instrumental in the fall of the imperial dynastic system, with the Qing Dynasty ending in 1912.

We flew to Chengdu in the late afternoon and stayed there overnight. I think if we could have, we would have flown all the way back to Taiwan, but maybe we arrived too late to catch the last flight to Hong Kong so we had to wait nearly an entire day.

We had dinner at a hot pot place which was really good, but I didn't get the name of the place. Chengdu is one of China's modernized cities and the quality of restaurants and hotels is pretty high. Nothing was planned in the evening, so I went out walking as I did the previous time. I found a street lined with Tibetan shops that I had noted before, but most of them were closed.

The first time we stayed in Chengdu, we left too early in the morning for breakfast at the hotel, but this time I found out what we missed. None of the hotels or their breakfasts in Tibet came close to the hotel in Chengdu and I gorged myself cross-eyed and silly on the western breakfast fare.

I suppose this is indicative of the prosperity China is enjoying. And I had no problem appreciating it; this was China, and what Chinese are doing in their own country is up to them. If they want to call themselves Communist despite the emerging opulence, that's up to them. But what they're doing in Tibet is another story. I agree that it's cultural genocide and a crime against humanity.

September 26, 3:07 p.m., Chengdu, China. The first thing I saw in China out the airport. A Maserati.

We only did one touristy thing before heading to the airport, going to a kind of theme park, but I couldn't figure out the theme. It kind of looked like a re-creation of an older China . . . lots of shops, rickshaws. Can't recall much about it of note, it was just touristy but pleasant enough.

Rainbow V 22mm lens toy camera, Ilford XP2 Super

Pentax ZX-5n Nikon N70, Kodak BW400CN

And that was it. We headed to the airport, said goodbye to our Chengdu guide who was very pleasant and professional, flew first to Hong Kong and then transferred to Kaohsiung. I lost track of all the members of the tour group immediately after getting off the plane for all they meant to me. They were nothing, I was nothing.

Car in a ditch, China. Pentax ZX-5n Nikon N70.

3:09 p.m.

4:23 p.m.

5:28 p.m.

Tibet Trip Day 8

Qinghai-Tibet Railway

It's no major obsession, but I do love trains, and one of the appeals to me for agreeing to go on this trip was that I was told we would be taking the new rail line, opened in 2006, despite the controversy, connecting Tibet with mainland China.

It's the highest railroad in the world, reaching altitudes of 16,500 feet for prolonged periods over the Tibetan plateau, and a technological feat crossing permafrost that undergoes some thawing in warmer months, and will likely see further thawing in the future due to global warming. The train is specially equipped with oxygen stations for altitude sickness.

Among the criticisms of the railway is that China is using it to further force China's influence on Tibet, and increase the influx of ethnic Chinese into Tibet. I actually wonder what incentives the Chinese government is using to coerce Chinese people to go to Tibet. Tibet is a harsh environment and the thin air is not a matter of small concern. Tibet historically has been difficult to conquer because conquerors eventually realized they liked oxygen and would leave.

I actually think the Chinese offer economic incentives to poor Chinese to move there, which further aggravates the situation in Tibet because then it is intentional to leave Tibetans out of any economic progress. I also think the Chinese criminal system gives petty criminals the choice of going to jail for 20 years for some small offense, or move to Tibet where they'll be given money to start something up. But I have no documentation for that, it just seems like something the Chinese government would do.

The train ride from Lhasa to our destination in Qinghai Province, also considered western China, took about 25 hours. It could be considered some boring going to some people, but I enjoy watching scenery go by. It never gets old. As long as I have my iPod.

I did take a lot of pictures from the train. In the daylight hours we had, I shot about a third of all the shots I took in Tibet with my digital point-and-shoot camera on the train. On this package tour, we stopped in 4 identifiable cities and otherwise were on the road between them. But the expanse of Tibet is much larger, and the train took us out through much of this expanse.

My idea was to shoot as much life in this expanse of countryside as possible. From a moving train, it meant a lot of quick, spontaneous spotting of something to shoot, then while the camera was turning on, pushing the optical zoom to its furthest at the same time, and then tracking a shot while it moved by at the same perceived speed as the train was going. The results were surprisingly sharp, even with my Canon's anti-shake, for a zoom lens from a moving train.

But yea, 25 hours is a long time on the train. Once the sun goes down, there's not much of anything to do. Our tickets were for berths – 4 to a room – and they were pretty cramped. The Chinese food in the dining car was surprisingly good. I didn't expect train food to be any good, and given the confined conditions the cooks had to deal with, they turned out some pretty tasty dishes.

After it was dark, most people tried to sleep. I sat in the hallway outside the berths reading while recharging my iPod shuffle since that was the only place with electrical outlets.

Tibet Trip Day 7

Lhasa, Tibet

We left Shigatse first thing this morning and backtracked on the same roads to Gyantse, but then took a different route to Lhasa that passed by numerous gorgeous alpine lakes that show up impressively on the map. We still had to climb to altitude, again to over 15,500 feet where we stopped to view Kharola Glacier. 

9:34 a.m. - same shot of Gyantse Fort and the wall ruins from the previous day, hoping for better composition. Proof that we backtracked to Gyantse, but the curious thing is, looking at the map, there is no "different route" to Lhasa. So ostensibly the following photos are all on the same road we took going there, but everything looked and felt different. 

10:10 a.m. - Tibetan road hazard

10:15 a.m. - Movement and perspective, two shots taken within one minute on a moving bus. The peak on the right of the light patch across the lake moves to the left in the second pic. 

10:17 a.m. - there are ruins of a structure in the middle of the lake. I'd love to know the story behind that! 

Tibet Trip Day 6

Shigatse, Tibet

Damn this thing's turning into a travelogue that is butt-long. Well it's almost done and I think I have progressively less to say here on in. Day 5 was the hump – the halfway point and kind of the climax with the whole day in Lhasa. 

This morning we headed off to Shigatse, Tibet's second largest city several hundred kilometers west of Lhasa, not as far away as Nyingchi, but still several hours driving with a stop in the town of Gyantse. As poorly planned was the unnecessary two days in Nyingchi, this was also poorly planned as we basically drove to Shigatse today, and drive back to Lhasa tomorrow, barely getting any sense of this important city at all. 

The drive took us to such great heights once again, but I was doing better with the altitude and wasn't pretending to hallucinate about the death bardos. We stopped at around 15,500 feet at a tourist lookout, and different from stops east of Lhasa, everywhere we stopped we were immediately set upon by Tibetan hawkers selling jewelry and crafts.

7:35 a.m., Potala Palace from the hotel dining room

9:37-10:14 a.m. - traveling to such great heights

At one place we practically had to push our way out of the bus because they were crowding around the door shoving necklaces in our faces. It may be an indication of how desperately poor Tibetans are and what the Chinese economic plan in Tibet is doing to Tibetans, but I can't speak too much on the issue, because the situation outside of Lhasa isn't as facially clear.

Rainbow V 22mm lens, Ilford XP2 Super film:

uncorrected scan (to be clear, black and white film that is able to be C-41 processed (color) at any photo-finisher still comes back with a color tinge, sepia or blue, which has to be removed digitally)

hawkers crowding the bus door. egregious enough for me to have presence of mind to pull out my camera and shoot them.

Tibet Trip Day 5

Lhasa, Tibet

This day turned out to be the best day of the entire trip for me, no doubt attributed in no small part to the fact that I managed to stay away from the tour group the entire day. We had the whole morning free and weren’t scheduled to meet until 11:30 to go to the Potala Palace, I thought. I definitely wanted to go there, so I wanted to be back on time.

Morning exploring

After breakfast, I set out with my cameras hoping to catch some good morning light as the sun rose. Unfortunately, I had pretty bad luck with the light and it wasn’t a nice morning light, but immediately harsh with ugly contrasts and shadows. I couldn’t find any shots in the ghetto I'd scoped out the previous night.

I did come across a group of poor Tibetans, one of them carrying a Tibetan guitar, so I thought he might be a musician, but I don’t think so. He wouldn’t play, he just fiddled with the tuning pegs and asked for money. They all asked for money. And this was the second person I saw carrying a Tibetan guitar who didn't look like he could play the instrument. Just fiddling with the tuning pegs and asking for money.

At this point, I still hadn’t figured out it’s best not to talk to Tibetans in Chinese. I realized later that I should always first talk to them in English, especially since I look Chinese. Many Tibetans know English, but even if they don’t, at least speaking in English makes it clear that I’m not Chinese. That’s of key importance.

Tibetans speak Chinese because they are forced to, but they can’t tell the difference between proper Chinese and my bad Chinese, so no matter how bad my Chinese may be, they can’t tell and immediately assume I’m a fucking mainland Chinese person.

Jokhang Temple

I was so unhappy with the light conditions that I stopped looking for shots, and decided to put that off until later. I still had several hours so I decided to go to Jokhang Temple near our hotel, which is probably one of the more important spiritual centers in Lhasa.

October 2, 5:45 p.m.

Jokhang Temple has a heavy Red Army presence around it and attracts huge amounts of tourists, but is still a magnet for Tibetans for worship. The temple itself is surrounded on all sides by a huge market selling objects of spiritual nature, and abuts an area that caters to travelers – not Chinese tourists – with low-cost hotels and hostels and English advertisements for food, internet, coffee, and guides for trekking and traveling out of Lhasa.

Rainbow V 22mm lens toy camera, Ilford XP2 Super film:

I had passed by Jokhang first thing that morning, and even as the marketplace was setting up, there was a huge line of Tibetans waiting to enter the temple. I wasn’t sure what that line was, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait in it, because I definitely wouldn't have had time.

But I found the ticket office and the monk there selling tickets told me that tourists buying tickets didn't have to wait in that line and could directly enter. That monk was my first clue that the monks generally are conversant in English.

I went in amidst the buzz and flurry of activity that surrounds this temple, and even though there were Chinese tourists in swarms there, being there did help ground me and put aside the disgust I felt about the Chinese occupation in Lhasa in general, and connect with a spiritual aspect of being there.

10:30-10:38 a.m., I forget if tourists were ushered to the upper level or just gravitated there, with ground level mainly for Tibetan practitioners who had to wait in line to enter. 

But being the responsible individual I am, I made sure I got back to the hotel in time to join the tour group, but once I got there, my cousin told me they were going to lunch first before going to the Potala Palace. I had no interest in going to another Chinese-style, multi-course banquet, so I told my cousin I'd meet them there. Since I had passed by the Potala Palace the night before, I had an idea where the entrance was to meet up with the group.

Tibet Trip Day 4

Lhasa, Tibet

Today was the long bus drive to the capital city of Lhasa, but on the way there were two touristy stops. The first was a valley forest park with a waterfall, and I guess the tourist highlight is that alongside the waterfall in the rock is a naturally formed image of the Buddha's face.

8:38 a.m., at what are they gawking?!

8:42 a.m., camera zoom answers

Again, I couldn't get a scope of the whole area since we were shepherded just to see certain things. The nature of tour groups is that you get taken to a place, you gawk at something for a limited duration of time and then get ushered on to the next thing to gawk at. Really dumb. But I noticed the path going to and past the base of the waterfall and said, fuckit, I bet I could walk the whole thing and still catch up to the old folk as they hobbled back to the bus. So I did.

Tibet Trip Day 3

Nyingchi, Tibet

Two days in Nyingchi are way too much for a package tour group. There are probably plenty of places to go and see if you have a proper guide and flexibility and mobility, but for a package tour where someone is sitting in a tour agency office deciding where to take a group of people and when, pickings are apparently slim.

This morning we went to see some really big cypress trees that called to mind giant redwoods in California, but ultimately left me unimpressed. It looked like there might have been good hiking, but I was with a bunch of old people who mostly couldn't handle anything vigorous, plus since I'm pretty much incommunicado on this trip with no information coming to me and no way to ask, I didn't know if I could safely take off on my own without inconveniencing everybody.

After wondering about it for a while, I finally did start venturing up into the pathways, taking my earbuds out in case people called me back, and call me back they did; they were about done. No one else was willing to venture further into the prayer flag swathed grove. They just stayed at the lower level area and gawked at the trees, taking pictures like good tourists do.

Back in the parking lot, I noticed that the grove of trees, nestled at the base of a mountain, didn't cover much acreage. Looking up the mountain, it was clear the grove of trees did not go up the mountain, and therefore those paths were likely quite short. Not impressed.

9:47 a.m.-10:04 a.m.