CHINA / About Tibet
The Tourism of Tibet
Updated: 2006-08-15 15:24
Tibet is located in the southwest of China. It formally belonged to the
domain of the Yuan Dynasty in the mid-thirteenth century. Although China
has undertaken changes and replacements of Dynasties and central
governments in Chinese history, Tibet has always been under the control
by the central government and been an inseparable part of China.
Today is an age of information with jet aircrafts, highways and network
of computers as its symbols. Mysterious places are rare to be found in
the world, but Tibet is an exception.
Because of its geographical position, unique topography and terrain;
unknown but existent original customs and natural scenery; And various
propagandas brought back by explorers all these render people possible to
form a mysterious picture of Tibet.
Tibet is located in the southwest Of China. It is bounded by Xingjanq,
Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunan provinces of China .The south and west of
Tibet is joined with Burma, lndia, Sikkim, Bhutan Nepal and the Kashmir
region. The boundary line reaches 4000 km long. Tibet has 1.2 million
square kilometers which is equivalent to the total area of five countries
as U.K, France, Germany, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The average altitude is above 4000 meters high. Tibet is the largest and
highest plateau in the word. Therefore it is called the "roof of the
world", and shares the name of the "third pole of the Earth". Tibet is
surrounded by high mountains with kunlun mountains in the north,
Himalayas in the south, Kela Kunlun ranges in the west and the steep
Hengduan ranges in the east, The Mount Qomolangma is situated between
China and Nepal with 8848 meters high, which is the highest peak in the
world.
Due to the different geographical conditions, temperatures of the south
grassland and north plateau differ sharply. The south is warm and rainy.
The mean annual temperature is 8��Cwith the lowest -16��C, the
highest16��C in July. Most rain falls during May to September. The north
climate belongs to continental climate. The mean annual temperature is
below 0��C.Freeze time covers half year. The highest temperature is under
10??C in July. It is warm from June to August. It is relatively dry area
in the north. The weather differs sharply during day and night. The best
time for traveling is from March to October.
Tibet has more than 1500 lakes and rivers which cover 30% of the total
lake area in China. The Yarlung Zangbo River, which is one of the main
rivers in the region, is 2,057 km long. Tibet is one of the largest
forest areas in China. High forests are found mainly in the mountains
from the east to Yungui plateau. Rdza-yul,Sman-gling,Me-tog and
Spl-bocounties have more than 90% surface areas covered by forests, wild
animals are indicative of Tibetan antelope, roe- deer, deer,leopard,
tiger ,bear,wolf,lynx, reserve and extensive wilderness make Tibet a
virgin land for ecological and hunting travel.
Tibet has a long historical culture. Ancient remains show that human
beings lived here from 4 thousand to 20 thousand years ago. Tibetans are
so diligent and brave that they create vital and diverse cultural
customs. This is a nation filled with special traditional culture and a
nation keen on dancing and singing.
Tibet is advanced in astronomy, ancient algorithm and medicine. Tibet
is abounded of classics and literature works.
Tibet is advanced in astronomy, ancient algorithm and medicine, Tibet is
abounded of classics and literature works. Among Tibetan greatest art
treasures are painting, architecture, carving, music dancing, folk opera,
and famous ancient art sites all around Tibet.
The most well-known sites are the Potala palace, Norbo-lingkha, Sera
Temple, Drepung Temple in Lhasa; Zhaxilhunbo Temple, Gzhis-rtse-rdzong in
Gzhis-ka-rtse;Rnan-sras-Gling Garden, and Smin-gorl-gling in Granang;
Byang-pa-gling Temple, kharub site in Chab-mdo; Mtho-lding-dgon-pa in
Rgyal rtse; Mtho-lding Temple, Guge kingdom site in Rtsamdva; khra-vbrug
Temple, and Yambulha-khang in Snevu-gdong; the tomb of Tibetan king in
Qiogjie ,The tour of these places and the custom of the nationality are
the most special in the world.
At the beginning of this century, Mr. Sven Hedin, a Sweden explorer who
made the first travel to Tibet from the western world, arrived at
Gzhis-ka-rtse with only two horses and one mare which were ever as 130
horses and mares when he first entered Tibet. He said in his" Travel in
the Asian Continent?�� that in Tibet." every step we'd taken made a new
discovery about the earth and each name of the place meant a new
occupation. We knew nothing about this part of our planet as we did the
back of the moon until Jan., 1907."
Transportation in Tibet has changed a lot through out this century. From
the time Mr. Sven Hedin entered Tibet at the first half of the century,
there was not even one mile of road or one truck, and the transportation
was based on man's labor and stock, Yak conveyance from Lhasa to Yaan was
only once a year. After 1950 when slavery was eliminated, four distinct
roads from Sichuan, Qinghai, Xingjiang and Yunnan to Tibet were built
through great difficulties. And at the same time inside this autonomous
zone, road nets formed centered Lhasa, Gzhis-ka-rtse, Chamdo and Nagqu,
which extended to 98 percent of the counties. Railway from Qinghai to
Tibet was built at this time. Skin raft and wooden boat could pass
through the Yarlung Zangbo River, Lhasa River, Nianchu River and Niyang
River. In 1956, airmen succeeded in their first aerial navigation above
the Qingzang plateau which ever meant the "forbidden area". Now there are
regular flights flying to and fro between Lhasa and many cities such as
Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing and Katmandu of Nepal.
Tibet, like many other areas, has changed much after our country's
opening reform beginning at the end of 1970s of this century. It attracts
tourists coming from all over the world. Mending and exploring tour
buses, training guides, managers and servants have made Tibetan tourism
prosperous.
Now tourists can enter Tibet in many ways, by bus from Xingjiang,
Qinghai, Sichuan or Yunnan; by air from Beijing. Chengdu or Chongqing to
Lhasa. Through Dro-mo foreign touring tourists from Bhutan, Sikkim and
India can make their tour in Rgyal-rlse, Gzhis-ka-rtse, Ding-rior Lhasa,
or through Spu-hrangs tourists from Nepal India can enter Ali area, if
they are by air, they can take a direct flight from Katmandu to Lhasa.
In Tibet, not only can the tourists take the buses provided by local
tourist department, but can ride a horse, a yak or a donkey and walk as
well.
Modern tourists are eager to return to and enjoy the nature, Tibet has
Large area, fewer populations, high mountains covered with snow, rich
forests, booming azalea on hillside, rampage rivers and calm lakes. Most
of the places have not been polluted and are sending forth a delicate,
original fragrance. In these places people enjoy the bounty of the nature.
Many modern tourists yearn for an exotic atmosphere and the different
culture of other countries and seek for new experience. Plentiful and
particular content of Tibetan culture is one of the most characteristic
parts of Chinese culture and the resources attracting many more tourists.
Located along the Dmarpo-ri Mountain, northwestern to Lhasa Capital of
Tibet, the Potala Palace was built after the seventh century, It is 13
floors high, takes an area of 41 hectares and it is piled up with
granites with thousands of halls. Inside the palace, there are coffin
towers of corpses of Lama through the ages and sorts of scripture halls.
Every coffin towers of corpses of Lama through the ages and sorts of
scripture halls, every coffin tower is luxurious decorated with gold
foils, pearls and jades. The largest tower of the fifth Lama is 1485
meters high; its decoration contains 119 Acrner (inside look) of the
potala palace Tubo king of Tibet. Songtsan Ganbo thousand liangs of gold,
4 thousand pearls of all sizes and countless other jewels. Dalai lived,
worked and made the Buddhist services in the Potala. His bedroom was on
the top of the Palace with a whole day's sunlight so as to be called"
sunlight hall". After the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the Potala palace
was set up by the Chinese central Government to be the important site of
preservation of cultural relics and maintained with fixed fund provided
by government, from the spring of 1989 to the summer of1994, government
appropriated a sum of 53 million yuan to maintain it and this made the
Potala palace more splendid and luxurious.
At the center of Lhasa, Vphul-snang temple was built in 647 for Tubo king
of Tibet, Songtsan Gambo to marry the Han princess Wencheng of Tang
Dynasty.
There were Buddhist and scripture halls inside the temple which was
covered with golden tile ceiling to make it more brilliant. Vphrual-snang
temple's style originated from both Tang Dynasty and Nepal, India. Right
on the center of the hall consecrates the same size of a golden statue as
sakyamuni when he was twelve. On the passage and four sides of the hall,
there is a lively Tibet fresco, nearly one thousand meters long, which
depicts the grand view when the Han princess wencheng entered Tibet, and
many fairy tales are told.
Along the Barkhor Street close to the vphrul-snang temple stand stores
one by one, which are opened and run by local merchants and those from
Nepal and India. They sell many kinds of light of the famous scene spot
Lama of vphrul-snang temple in Tibet is introducing this temple to the
foreign visitors handicrafts with distinctive national features. What
attracts the tourists most is people in the street. They put the palms
together, put their heads, arms and knees down to ground, and move
forward slowly every step with a kowtow. This is the highest admiration
of Lama to express the most honest hearts to the Buddhists. Some of them
come here far away with a step. A kowtow; and some from local areas. In
the morning they kowtow around Vphrul-snang temple for half an hour, then
go home to change their clothes, wash their hands, and have breakfast and
go to work. This king of kowtow is a physical movement all over the body
like Taiji and Qigong popular in the interior of the country, although it
is a religious movement; new content makes it a special life of Lhasa
inhabitants.
Tourists are also interested in Gzhis-ka-rtse rdzong and Zhaxilhunbo
Temple of Gzhis-ka-rtse city. "Rdzong" means a fort, or a mountain
fastness in Tibet language. Like other religious buildings such as Potala
palace, Gzhis-rtse-rdzong is located on the top of a high mountain. It
was once used as both a military fortress and local authorities of former
Tibet's local governors. It was built in Ming and Qing Dynasties
installing scripture halls, Buddha halls, county magistrate offices,
courts, jails, and storehouses etc, there is a secret water channel
connected with water resource. All these features are unique evolved from
the long history of the old fort building development.
Zhaxilhunbo temple is the biggest one of the Sect during the later Tibet
with a history of five hundred years. It is the center of religious and
political movement of panchen Lamas. There are over fifty scripture halls
and more than two hundred rooms built along the mountain slope. In the
Maitreya Hall, 30 meters high, the seated maitreya's hat, face, breast,
waist and foot each stands for one floor of the Hall. The bronze statue
is composed of 6,700 liangs of gold and 230 thousand jins of red copper
and there are one thousand and for hundreds of diamonds, pearls, and
ambers and decorated between the brows of it.
Despite that Tibetan scenic spots and historical sites have plentiful
contents and unique features, what makes the tourists yearn for is its
charming local conditions and customs Theirs are many festivals here,
even in every month, such as Tibet calendar Year, the Lantern Festival,
Bathing Festival and Flower Display Festival,etc, if tourists happen to
come to the festival, they will be invited to sing,dance,drink and enjoy
together with local people Tibetans are hospitable to ask the tourists to
visitor homes, to understand and participate in Tibetan daily life, and
to experience the new and interesting life styles.
In 1980, there was only one hotel with less than100 beds to receive
abroad tourists in Tibet, But till the end of 1993 there were 78
restaurants or hotels with 1,329 guest rooms, A Sino-foreign -star hotel
was built by the international Holiday inn in Lhasa, Many hotels'
architecture adopted the Tibetan style but was decorated inside with
modern equipment if the tourists want, they may live in Tibetan houses or
Tibetan tents.
There are traditional dishes and of foods, such as butter form cow and
sheep milk, butter tea mixed with butter and tea that is decocted from
Bick tea, glutinous rice cake made of highland barley and pea,
barley-brew drinks yoghurt milk residue and air-dry meat, etc. All these
are tasted specially. Hosts toast the tourists to make them in a more
tipsy feeling and a higher tourist interest besides. There are chuan, Lu
Cantonese and Yang dish series here and western-style food in some
restaurants.
Tourists can choose many mementos, full of Tibetan feature, buy, such as
Tibetan wooden bowl with fine figure, colorful jade wares and stone
wares, antique earthen wares, exquisitely wrought gold and silver
vessels, Tibetan knife and various handicrafts, wooden fabrics
and Tibetan joss sticks.
On the other hand there are plenty of recreational activities in Tibet
From long time ago Tibet has been called" ocean of singing and dancing"
and everyone here can sing movingly and dance gracefully tourists can
enjoy or if they want, they can take part in all these activities, Guoxie
and Guozhang dance are the popular collective dances in Tibet. Hand in
hand, arm in arm, with one side the men and the other side the women,
people dance while singing following the rhythm by stamping their feet.
Sometimes they sing separately and sometimes collectively. Drum dancers
and Reba dancers put on colorful clothes, hang big drums on their waists,
wave the drumsticks, move ahead and back with powerful rhythm. in
addition, there are other dances like Duixie dance and lexie dance or Tap
dance while singing and dancing imitating sowing seeds. Pulling up weeds,
harvesting, twisting the sheep's wool, spinning cottons, milking cows and
making butter Moreover, Tibetan drama is spectacular to the tourists as
its performers act while singing with colorful masks.
Touring in Tiber the unique contents of food, shelter, transportation and
bargain can make the tourists greatly excited. When they enter Tibet,
they enjoy revealing the mysterious veil covering this area and seeing
the amazing and elegant demeanor behind the veil.
Now there are many tourist activities such as mountain -climbing,
River-exploring, skiing, motor-bicycle-riding hiking, horse-riding,
boat-rowing hunting fishing sun and hot spring bathing.
Categorical tourists like scientific exploration and sorts of scientific
conferences have begun, including Tibetan study, Tibetan medical Science,
ethnology meteorology, geology geography, trade, architecture, religion,
history, archaeology, culture, art, altitude disease and highland animal
and plant, And with the further development of the reform, business and
vacation tour will be seeing the making.
Two circular tour routes are open in Tibet in 1993, the east one and the
west one, The east one goes from Lhasa through maldrolgungkar-kongpo
rgya-mday Nying khri-Sman-gling-Snang-shan-Rgya-tcha-Rtse-thang back to
Lhsas again, the west:
Lhasa-Gzhis-ka-rtse-Rgyal-sa-dgav-vbrong-pa-suhrang-sgar-shiquanhe-Dge-rgya
s-sger-rtse-Tshochen-22Daoban-Rgyal rtse-Lhasa. The two routes enlarge
the territory in activity for tourists in Tibet.
It is more convenient to ask help of the travel agency rather than walk
alone. The travel agency can provide both single and manifold services
such as communications, receptions, lodgings interpretation, and tour
guide, Among 21 travel agencies, and 14 are exclusively providing
services for foreign tourists. They have many guides and interpreters of
English, Japanese, and German and French, In addition, they have set up
agencies in Beijing and Chengdu and long-term organizations in Hong Kong
and Katmandu to supply the consulting services for the tourists.
From 1980 to 1993 admissions to the Tibet totaled about two hundred
thousand and foreign exchange earnings were up to 65 million, in
1994,27,927 person-times were received which was an increase of 13% of
that in 1993, And each tour norm had reached the highest level of the
history.
By the end of 1993.in Tibet there have been 3,128 persons engaging in
tour profession of the first stage.
There is huge potential capacity of Tibetan tour. The tour film
"Tibet-Tibet", shot by Chinese Travel Agency in 1995, gained the gold
medal in the international tour film festival in France; it reflected the
world's big interest in Tibetan tour. The film festival committee praised
the film highly,"The magnificent figure, a new view to the old
civilization and melodious music has pulled the film's exotic atmosphere
to the climax,"
At the beginning of 1990s, the world Tour organization sent experts to
Tibet to discuss and form" the Development project of Tibetan Tour
in1991-2005". In this project, the annual growth rate of both guests and
earnings will be20% to 30% with the development of the guest market, the
communication, the infrastructure and the advertisement. To 2000, Tibetan
tour will show a state of high speed development by receiving 75 thousand
person-times and foreign exchange earnings of 52 million dollars Tibetan
tour's mystery is being desalinated with the fast development of Tibetan
tour and more tourists. And for seeking and enjoying the remaining
mystery, tourists should come to Tibet as early as possible.
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