Paul just read a story in the China Daily today that I have to tell you about. It’s titled “A Stranger in Lhasa? Not if you’re from Sichuan” and it talks about the surprise of a government official from Chengdu, named Hu Jian, who travels to Lhasa and is thrilled to find so many Sichuan people doing business there!
Hu says “When I got into the taxi, the driver, Zhou Hong, greeted me in the Sichuan dialect. Zhou, from Dayi County in Sichuan, told me most taxi drivers in Lhasa come from Sichuan.” He goes on to say that he didn’t expect to find so many Sichuan people in Lhasa but locals in Lhasa are not surprised when the find Sichuan people “running restaurants, peddling vegetables, selling shoes or jewelery and working at construction sites.”
A Tibetan at a local travel agency is quoted as saying “There are so many Sichuan people in Lhasa that the Sichuan dialect is tantamount to Mandarin.” He goes on to say that an increasing number of people from outside Lhasa had arrived in the city since the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway last year.
According to him there are “100,000 Sichuan people doing business in Lhasa, accounting for nearly 80 percent of people from outside the city.”
Need I say more?
Lhakdonla.
We love you and support you in this meaningful mission. On our part we in Washington DC went to RFK stadium in the baseball game match and held out our banners and wore our T-shirts for Team Tibet. We are praying for your safety and watching you everyday.