Day Two - The Railway
This morning we went to Beijing West Railway Station, the departure point for trains to Tibet. This mostly express service started last July. Even though I knew we weren’t going to make the trip to Tibet, just being there at the station was exciting. We had our bags with us and I imagined us just jumping on the train and being whisked away to that beautiful land that I’ve never seen with my own eyes.
The station is massive and teeming with people. I searched the crowds for Tibetan faces and saw only a few that might have been. Nobody obvious, that’s for sure.
A very sweet young Chinese man in the ticket line in front of us asked me if I was Chinese. When I said no, he told me we can’t buy tickets there; he showed me a small red pass book and explained only people with this book can purchase tickets there. But we decided to stay in the line to talk to an agent anyway.
What we learned at the counter is that there are trains to Lhasa leaving daily at 9:30pm but they’re all booked up until Monday. And even then, we would have to get a visa to go there. Strangely, she told me that since I was Canadian, I would have to go to the Canadian embassy to get the forms. We later saw an English message scrolling on a massive electronic signboard that said foreigners wanting to go to Tibet Autonomous Region had to seek permission from any number of Chinese government offices.
Watch the video below to hear my account of this:
It’s clear that Tibet is a restricted area for foreigners. For a supposed “inalienable” part of China it sure gets special treatment. The hoops foreigners have to jump through to gain access to Tibet mean the authorities can strictly control all who enter…except of course, Chinese who go in droves.
According to Chinese media reports the railway to Tibet took 1.5 million passengers into Tibet and over “650,000 tons of goods in or out of Tibet” just last year. While we can’t rely on Chinese government numbers - especially on issues they are sensitive about - two important questions arise:
First, how many of these “passengers” were tourists, and how many were Chinese settlers paying for a one-way steerage seat to seek their fortunes in Tibet? A Tibetan interviewed recently on Radio Free Asia said that many were staying and making the already terrible socio-economic situation for Tibetans even worse with prices in and around Lhasa doubling and increasing competition for scarce jobs. (Read excerpt of this interview)
Second, what was taken out of Tibet? The Chinese government announced recently that it has “discovered” 16 significant mineral deposits all along the rail line. Really, with the help of Canadian and other foreign mining companies the Chinese have been quietly prospecting along the route for a long time and now, as we said would happen, resources and profits will be leaving Tibet with little or no benefit to Tibetans. Instead, Tibetans will be left with scarred and polluted lands. (Read more on mining in Tibet)
There is no doubt that China is colonizing Tibet by encouraging this influx of Chinese settlers and exploiting Tibet’s natural resources. Both are supported by the railway to Tibet, which begins in the station I was in today.
What is left to say? It has to stop.
Posted: August 3rd, 2007 under Photos, Railway, Video.
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Comments: 10
Comments
Comment from E. Mendez
Time: August 3, 2007, 10:10 am
It has to stop. It will stop. We will make it stop.
Comment from Tenzin Wangchuk
Time: August 3, 2007, 1:17 pm
Lhadon la, i salute you for all that you are! I am proud of you for the great work and your courage towards our cause.You are inspiration to us. Please take care!
Good Luck & regards,
-from Delhi
Comment from Choden
Time: August 3, 2007, 1:18 pm
keep inspiring us. Looking forward into reading more…..
Please take care and eat well:)
with lots of love
Comment from Zegyal (your rangzen son)
Time: August 3, 2007, 2:11 pm
Rangzen Amala!
We are so proud of you. Stay safe and keep fighting. We are thinking about you all the time.
Comment from Sherap Dolma
Time: August 3, 2007, 5:33 pm
I have many relatives in Lhasa and I know the many problems created by the mass influx of Han Chinese to the city. Due to this influx, character of Lhasa itself is changing. It is now about 90% sinonized.
Tibet was NEVER an “inalienable” part of China. It will never remain a part of China. We will be Free !
Lhadon, I salute your true courage !
Dorothy Thompson said : ONLY when we are no longer afraid, do we begin to live.
Let us all do our part. Let us all dig deep into our conscience and fire up that courage to get deeply involved in making TIBET FREE again.
Pingback from Tibet Will Be Free » Blog Archive » Funny Thing About Railways
Time: August 3, 2007, 9:23 pm
[…] Lhadon visited the Beijing West Railway Station. As she reported on her blog: There is no doubt that China is colonizing Tibet by encouraging this influx of Chinese settlers […]
Comment from laowusangui
Time: August 13, 2007, 5:01 pm
Dear Lhadon:
Without any proof you can only make an absurd conclusion. I hope you can have a look along Tibet railway one day. I hope you make your decision ont only with your image, but also with your own experience.
Laowu
Comment from བོད་རིགས་ཞིག་གིས་
Time: August 14, 2007, 9:06 pm
རྒྱ་ནག་མི་རིགས་ཀྱིས་དབང་བསྒྱུར་བྱས་པའི་སྲིད་གཞུང་ལ་འཚེ་མེད་ཞི་བའི་ལམ་ནི་བོང་བུ་རྣ་ལ་གསེར་གྱི་བདེ་རེད། ལྷག་པར་དུ་དེང་སྐབས་ཀྱི་གུང་ཁྲན་ཏང་ཟེར་བ་འདི་ལ་འཚེ་མེད་ཞི་བའི་ཐབས་ནི་དེ་ལས་ཀྱང་ཡོང་མི་སྲིད་པ་ཞིག་རེད་བསམ་གྱི་འདུག
དེ་ལས་གོ་བ་མེད་པའི་གླང་རྒན། རྒྱལ་བོའི་བཀའ་ལས་གཡུགས་པ།
ཞེས་པའི་དབེ་བཞིན་ང་ཚོས་དྲག་པོའི་སྒོས་ནས་བོད་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་རྒྱ་རིགས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་སུན་པོ་བཟོས་ནས་བོད་ཡུལ་དུ་བསྡོད་མ་ཐུབ་པ་བྱེད་པའི་དུས་ཞིག་རེད་བསམ་གྱིན་འདུག
བླ་མ་དང་གྲྭ་བའི་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་བའི་དེངས་རབས་ཀྱི་བོད་རིགས་གི་ཆབ་སྲིད་ལ་འགྱུར་བ་བཏང་ནས་གཞུང་དམངས་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་
དྲག་པོའི་ལས་མ་སྒྲུབ་ནས་ད་དུང་མུ་འཐུད་དུ་བླ་མའི་ལྷག་ལ་སྲིད་བཞག་ན་བོད་ལ་རང་བཙན་ཐོབ་པ་ཕར་བཞོག རང་སྲིད་རང་སྐྱོངས་ངོ་ལ་ཞིག་ཡང་ཐོབ་རྒྱུ་མ་རེད་ལ། ཐ་ན་རང་གི་ཕ་ས་དུའང་ལོག་རྒྱུ་ཁག་པོ་ཡོད་རེད་བསམ་གྱི་འདུག
འདི་ལྷག་སྒྲོན་གཅིག་པོའི་བཤད་པ་མི་བོད་རིགས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བཤད་པ་ཡིན།
Comment from བོད་རིགས་ཞིག་གིས་
Time: August 14, 2007, 9:27 pm
རྒྱ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཡི་ཁ་ལ་ཉན་ནས་ད་བར་དུ་བསྡད་པ་རེད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཕ་ཡུལ་གྱི་རང་དབང་དུང་འཆར་ཞི་དང་ལྡན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཇེ་སྡུག་དུ་འགྲོ་ཡི་འདུག
དེ་འདྲ་ཡིན་ན་ང་ཚོས་འཚེ་མེད་ཞི་བ་ལ་གྲུབ་འབྲས་ཡག་པོ་ཡོང་གི་མི་འདུག
རྒྱུ་མཚན་རྒྱ་ནག་གིས་ང་ཚོའི་སྲིད་འཛིན་གྲྭ་བ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་ཤེས་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཟད་གྲྭ་བ་ཡང་དག་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་ཤེས་གི་ཡོད་པས་དྲག་པོའི་ལས་མི་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཡོད་པ་རེད།
ཡིན་ན་ཡང་ད་ནས་བཟུང་ང་ཚོའི་བོད་མི་རིགས་འདི་བླ་མའི་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་འཇུག་རྫོགས་དེ་དྲག་པོའི་ལམ་ལ་སྐྱོད་པའི་དུས་རེད་བསམ།
ང་ཚོས་ངེས་པར་དུ་ང་ཚོའི་བོད་དང་། ཡུ་གུར་། ནང་སོག སོགས་མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ཐོག་རྒྱ་ནག་ནང་དུ་གསང་བའི་གཏོར་རྒོད་བྱེད་པའི་དུས་ཞིག་རེད་བསམ་གྱི་འདུག
Comment from merlia
Time: June 10, 2008, 1:50 am
It makes us to be proud of you. Nice to be part of this blog….
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