Mon, 4/23.  Back to sea level!  I can breath again.  (Stopped to see a yak.  About the same size as Mongolia’s yaks despite claims that they are shoulder height.)

Drizzle rain, which marred some excellent countryside views.  Bus needed to take a 30 minute detour because driver was new and hadn’t brought the proper paperwork.  Tour buses need permission to leave the city.  Getting to the boat required a walk down a hundred steps, walking across a gangway only 18 inches wide, then crossing through two nested riverboats.  In the rain.

The riverboat is a boat.  Nothing special.

Tibet River.

Last view of Tibet.

One of many tunnel entrances.  Each tunnel had a sign indicating it’s length.  Longest was 6.8 kms.

Landslide!

Climb down to the boat.

Sun, 4/22.  After two day of looking at the Potala Palace, we finally toured it.  Requiring a climb of 300 steps plus an continuous inclined stone path.  At 12,000 feet.  Actually, easier than I feared.  I was third to the top and the first two (natives to 10,000 foot Colorado) didn’t really count.  No photos allowed inside, monitored closely.  Everything is in superlatives.  Massive stupas and tombs.  Thousands of statues.  A timed one hour walk though with intense incense!  We saw only 17 of the shrines.  Overwhelms the senses.  Very few windows, so you’d never know you were hundreds of feet above ground level.

For lunch we had the Tibet version of pizza.  Not heavenly.  After a needed rest, we set off for the Tibetan family visit, comprised of one woman, who gave mono-syllabic answers.  Our Tibetan tour guide gave most of the answers.  Frustrating.  But her home was extremely attractive.  Custom made furniture with incredible paintings, which matched the ceiling paintings.  I don’t think she was a typical Tibetan.  A big picture of China’s leadership was incongruously displayed in one corner. “Every home is given one.” She was unwilling to get anywhere close to a conversation about China.

Dinner was yak burgers.  Not bad.  Taste was not like hamburgers.  Got off the bus early to take my last picture of the Palace, from the same perspective shown on the 50 Yuan ($8) bill.

8:30 in the morning. Note the bowtie.

Family Kitchen. In the winter, it’s also their living room/bedroom. Stove supplies the heat. But the rest of the house is fantastic!

The Potala Palace is on the . . .

. . . 50 Yuan bill. About $8. (The largest is only 100 Yuan.)

Sat, 4/21.  Even though our guide was able to get us into the Jokhang Temple through the back way (saving us hours of standing in line), once inside the crowds were insane.  Parts rivaled a Tokyo train during rush hour.  The temple is a collection of many, many statues, each with some special significance.  To see the main one up close, one must first endure the line that includes half the others.  We walked the outer ring, thereby skipping a good view of everything.  But we got the gist of it all.  There weren’t guys with megaphones telling people to move along, but there should have been.  Outside people walked around the temple clockwise.  Others prostrated on the ground at the front.  A few did both, advancing a little each time.  (I refused to take pictures of them.  It just seemed disrespectful.)  Overall, the Temple from the outside is completely unremarkable.  Except for the line to get in.

The Barkhor Bazaar surrounds the Temple.  If you were buddhist, there were lots of things to tempt you.  Nothing special.  They sell yak skulls.  Wouldn’t fit in my suitcase.

After lunch some went to two additional buddhist sites.  I passed and satisfied my time with a walk around tomorrow’s destination; the Potala Palace.

It snowed last night in the mountains.

These banners on the mountain top have some religious significance that escaped me.

Top of the Temple.

This would be the office of the Dali Lama if he was in Tibet.

The roof of the Temple.

This is a photo of the backside at dusk from the roof of our hotel.

Fri, 4/20.  Not much today.  Early flight to Lhasa.  We were’t allowed on the plane without permits.  We were’t allowed out of the terminal without the same permits.  I hadn’t realized how tightly controlled access was to Tibet.  The Lhasa Airport is about 90 minutes from Lhasa.  Not sure why, though mountains might be a reason.  Though the road is extremely flat, we transited through three tunnels and two long bridges.  Very flat land between high mountains.  Guide said it snowed last week.  66 degrees today.

Throughout our tour Jacky has been scaring us about the 12,000 foot altitude.  Apparently he has a hard time adjusting.  Though I experienced some slight dizziness shortly after landing, I recovered and now feel fine.  Heart rate is increased.  Stretching didn’t bother me.  Ibuprofen works fine.

Our hotel is excellent, though we all still cannot figure out the thermostat, even though each hotel’s is similar.  I’m getting frustrated.  Opening the window works, but that’s not the point.  We’re situated just blocks behind the Potala Palace, which is every bit as impressive as the pictures.  We tour there tomorrow, we think.  Admission tickets are issued the evening before and the time is precise.  Entry and Exit.

Natives are dressed in a wide range, from international normal to unique local tradition.  Nice hats.  People smile a lot except for the military personnel, whose presence is felt.

A really good briefing from a local professor (who got her masters in Hawaii).  Great lunch and dinner.  Tasty yak meat, hot flatbread.  The local guide says the water is safe to drink, but Jacky says differently.

Air bottles. They feel empty. Duh. “Just breath normal, fellas.” (Apollo 13)

The picture is much better than reality. The sun is very bright. I barely knew what I was taking a picture of.

Our first view of Potala Palace.

Chinese have unlucky numbers, reflected by elevator exclusions. But 4-7 seem excessive.

Thurs, 4/19 Continued.  Yesterday’s video creation took a great deal of time.  I’d never mashed videos together, nor added music.  Not a bad first try, but I had no-lose subject matter.  Can there be a bad video of pandas?

The Research facility was very crowded with very pushy people.  I can’t really blame them.  Security had megaphones yelling to “move along”.  At least that’s what I’m assuming they were shouting.  From what I’ve seen at the San Diego Zoo, I’m thinking China only loans out boring pandas.

I present other pictures of the day.  It was a short day as I retreated to the hotel to battle a minor cold.  Tibet (tomorrow) presents enough issues without the added discomfort of sniffles.  (Postscript: The rest seemed to work.)

I can only think pandas don’t suffer from nightmares.

Do you see them?

There they are.

A Red Panda

Notice the creatures on the right.

A few rental bikes.

Buy a bucket of . . . whatever.

Rabbit heads on the right. Duck heads below.

I’m not sure what these are, but it’s food.

Another craft brewery.

Note the size (cars below).

Thurs, 4/19.  Let’s not clutter this day with words.

Wed, 4/18.  3 Hour Train trip to Chengdu.  Averaged about 150 MPH.  Lunch on the train.  A lot(!) of tunnels.  Most of the pictures taken were blurry.

Arrived at hotel with sniffles.  Oh oh.  Took a nap rather than having my feet massaged.  Well, actually THAT was never happening anyway.  Dinner was made up of new recipes.  Very welcomed.  Spicy.

I took in an optional show which was essentially a variety show wrapped in a famous story.  It was much much better that the show we saw in Xi’an.  The last act involved very rapid mask changing.  Fraction of a second.  Obviously there was a trick to it, but it was really fun to watch.  Lots of fun.

Before the show our local guide took me to a pharmacy for cold medicine.  Hope it works.

This was the bathroom at the hotel in Xi’an. Sliding doors, plural. Too much glass.

Restaurant. Just a few pots.

The show. Many in the audience held up their phones during the show to take pictures or videos!

Tues, 4/17. Drove into the “country” to visit a “village”, passing a long park between lanes where various persons practiced Tai Chi, one with a big sword.  Drove down a four lane road crowded with buildings, turned right for a minute and suddenly we were in the village.  A high rise apartment towers over you not 100 yards away.  But it has it’s own pretty welcome gate.  We get a minor welcome from gaily dressed town folk beating drums and playing pipes.  Just too odd.  The village is famous for art, including paper cutting art, which we dabbled in.

We spent most of the day buying veggies, then helping to prepare lunch and eating said lunch, followed by a Q&A.  We’d split into two groups to visit two families. Buying the food was a challenge because Jacky thought it would be fun to give us the Chinese names of what we should buy, without the English.  Jacky likes games.  Cooking was okay.  The main dish was fried gyoza that tasted exactly like home.  The combined Q&A was interesting.  The other group visited a family who were proud Party members.  Our group never even talked about it.  The Party host was very pushy, which I considered both probably stereotypical and disturbing.

After returning to the hotel I again passed on dinner and went for an evening walk.  Began with a short subway ride, which was simplicity itself.  Machines had an “English” button.  The city is laid out in a rigid N-S, E-W pattern, which makes navigation easy.  I walked back.  Beautiful lights.  I passed at least eight groups of ad hoc dancers.  Videos below of the two strangest ones.  Mind you, this is a Tuesday.

Power lines ruin so many photos.

Noodles out to dry.

The old village, vacated in 1996. The new village’s homes seem built to be B&Bs. Many bedrooms, oversized kitchen.

Pepper spice production, old style. Not allowed until recently (too entrepreneurial).

I waited an hour for the lights on the dragon to go on. No luck.

Mon, 4/16.  China turned the site where the Terra-cotta Army was discovered into a Museum while also being a very active archeological dig.  Big crowd, gardens, guards, tour buses.  I’d expected pushy people since the moment I landed in China, but happily it wasn’t a thing elsewhere.  The pushy people arrived here.  Standing in line meant nothing.  When I (a foreigner) pushed back, I got these amazed looks.  Too bad.

Suffice to say it was awesome, though I’m not sure which was more amazing: The 8,000 statues or that they could have been lost in time for 2,200 years.  After the discovery scholars went back over history and noted rumors and legends written of buried things.  No one took them seriously.  The enabling emperor’s burial site, just a kilometer away, had been assumed all along, but left untouched.  It’s still untouched, awaiting better technology and preparation.  The Terra-cotta Army had been nicely painted, but exposure to dry air flaked off the paint in minutes.  They don’t want that to happen again.

Broken statues are being meticulously put back together.  They’ve got thousands in one piece.  Begs the question why they need to fix them all.  I guess it’s like the drive to finish a jigsaw puzzle.

After lunch (there was a guy making noodles from scratch) we visited a school, which the tour group seeks donations to support.  (Though I’ve donated to the cause for the previous two tours (Mongolia and Morocco), I’m not about to donate to a Chinese institution.  I’ll let our trade surplus take care of it.)  Jacky had us play games with them.  I did not gain any insight into the Chinese education system.  Kids are kids around the world.  Fun I guess, but not useful.

Skipped dinner.  The food is too good.

I’d have a hard time concentrating with 50,000 tourists looking on.

Note the crowd in the distance. Twice the size of a football field.

This is a half-size replica, found in 3,000 pieces. Put back together. Gold, silver and brass parts.

The Commanding General. Tour guide says it’s obvious because he’s rotund.  Hands were resting on a decayed sword.

Incredibly good representation for photos. I couldn’t tell where the statues ended and background painting began.

Sun, 4/15.  Visited Little Wild Goose Pagoda.  (The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is only a few mails away.)  Before we got the lecture, Tai Chi lesson.  Fun.  The master had one complex routine for us to learn rather than several simple ones.  After about seven run-throughs I think we got the hang of it, but I couldn’t do it now.  I would have preferred more simple routines to remember.

After touring the gardens and watching people ring the bell for luck, we had a calligraphy class.  The teacher was excellent.  Everyone enjoyed learning how Chinese characters make sense when broken down into component parts.

After lunch we visited the City Wall.  I inadvertently staged a partial mutiny by asking Jacky if I could leave the tour to just walk around the City on the Wall.  Six others joined me.  It ended up that only four went to the next stop, a Jade Factory.  Three of the mutineers bailed after a walking a quarter of the wall, two speed-walked (fitness buffs) around the intended three-quarters of the wall.  One stayed with me for a more sedate slow walk.  She was unsure of finding her way back I think.  About 7 miles total.  It was an illuminating experience.  China has a lot of exercise stations in parks for adults.  Not so many playgrounds.

In the evening we had dinner and a show.  Dinner was all about dumplings.  Beef, pork, fish, duck, veggie dumplings.  Delicious, but they were all steamed, not grilled.  The show was poor.  Canned music, cheap sets, unenthusiastic performers.  Not at all what I expected from China.  We’re going to have more opportunities to see performances on the trip.  I hope they improve.

After the group exercise, we posed for photos. My picture was lost in translation.

Little Wild Goose Pagoda. The lightning rod takes away from its grandeur.

There was some king of “Young Citizens” event in the park. Children giving really long speeches. A catholic priest presided.

China is too much about luck.

The Wall is very impressive. And long. Of course, one traitor opening one door ruins the whole concept.