An astonishingly ugly
city, full of
Communist-style squat block buildings, and a few trees stabbed here and there. Otherwise, everything is very
dusty. There are fairly substantial
Chinese neighborhoods but they are as desolate and depressed as everything else. The drive from the
airport is probably better than anything you'll see in Lhasa itself, except the palace.
Inhabitants of Lhasa include: resentful or enterprising
Han Chinese, poor and/or aggressively enterprising city
Tibetans, tall
Tibetan nomads,
beggars, rich
American tourists, rude
German tourists,
hippie/
New Age pilgrim-tourists, Tibetan religious
pilgrims, and the
mangy dogs that roam the streets and congregate at the
temples. Oh yes, and a lot of
heavily armed Chinese
soldiers. Be warned, they do not have a
sense of humor.
Across from the
Potala is a large
public square, usually full of
tourists having their pictures taken. On one side of the square there's a
disco. Another part of Lhasa has a large
outdoor market. Tibetan
souvenirs are cheaper in
Nepal, though. Buy a
hat anyway, you'll need it; even in Lhasa, the sun is blinding.