Army Day
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2005
1
125
354
Trip End
Ongoing
Tsari, Tibet,
China
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Unfortunately, Tsari is located right on the border with India, so chances of making it, I thought were slim. These thoughts proved correct as I hiked to a dead end checkpoint after rides with a China Post vehicle, a dump truck full of sand, a motorcycle, and hiking.
Not wanting to cause any trouble, I soon left the Kyemtang village checkpoint, located on a cliff overlooking the Kyemtang River, with its steep valley heading south towards Tsari. I had reached a dead end. Time to admit defeat and turn around.
The administrators of this small town had obviously not had to deal with this before. They wanted my identification, pointing to their own cards, so I gave them my Massachusetts driver's license, just to see what would happen. They wrote down the information and faxed it to their headquarters, probably in Bayi. "Is this your name," they asked after the fax went through? I looked at the fax. My name said: "Driver's License."
Back at Nang after a ride with two men from Chengdu, Sichuan, the ticket man called the police. Soon, an officer came; back at the office he copied my passport. On the way, we met firefighters, drunk from celebrating the August 1 Army Day Holiday. They were friendly, all shaking my hand. They wanted me to stay and drink with them.
"Sorry, can't go, need to go with him," pointing at the officer. The officer wanted to join us too, it seemed and was apologetic for the adminstrative hassle. He found me a good hotel room and bid me farewell.
Soon, I found out that I couldn't use any internet service in town: "police, no good," one man said. I didn't want to get the internet guy in trouble, so left, frustrated with the Chinese Administration in Tibet. What did they think, that I was sending nuclear missile secrets or talking badly of them on the internet. I wouldn't do that.
My hotel was also the location of the KTV dance club: "We can go to KTV tonight for the holiday," one firefighter said, excited, as the entire first floor of my hotel filled with prostitutes. He was from Chengdu, Sichuan. I'd say about 60% of Chinese Han living in Tibet are from Sichuan.
"There are problems between Sichuan and Tibet. Bad history," he said. "But today, I...we're trying to help with money, development."
He was here for one year and would stay for at least another four. Now he liked Tibet, a refuge from the pollution and crowded streets of Chengdu, with friendly people.
Before going to sleep, I couldn't help but look around the hotel at the KTV, the prostitutes, the Border Patrol Police 4x4 parked in front of me, and think: "this is a surreal experience, celebrating Army Day in Tibet with police officers and military men."
For the first time, however, I returned to my bedroom to watch television--another of hundreds of World War II movies--and was pleasantly surprised by the movie. It depicted a Russian woman soldier, a Chinese man, and a young Japanese woman prisoner of war. Due to unusual circumstances, they became a group traversing the northern wilderness of Manchuria. Despite seeing untold horrors, which would lead many to develop extreme hatred, they began to coalesce as a group, slowly trusting one another, despite chances to murder one another. In the end, the Japanese woman sacrificed herself in an attempt to stop the massacre of Chinese people at the hands of a Japanese squad. At the same time, the Chinese man tried to save the Japanese woman.
This was much better than the usual "Kill the Japanese" movies.
So, who is right, the firefighter or the 10th Panchen Lama? Perhaps they are both right to a certain degree.
Comments
confused?
i'm confused by your map. did you stay on the border of india/china/tibet? or no? -s