Eric's Beijing Diary

Met a Tibetan guide from Xiahe. He told me what the deal was on my difficulty buying a bus ticket. He said that the government was trying to restrict all the Tibetan villages to tour groups, so they would only sell tickets to groups with a permit. Sounds like they are trying to implement the same kind of thing they have in Tibet. I hope that's not the case, but it does make sense in a way. Linxia is a Hui Muslim city, but Hezuo is a Tibetan village. So the lady at the ticket window would talk to me about how to get to Linxia, but was very tight lipped when I asked about anything beyond that. I'm not sure, but he could be right. Doesn't explain, though, why had no trouble at all buying a ticket for Langmusi at the ticket window in Hezuo. Both Hezuo and Langmusi are Tibetan villages. If the government really is trying to keep backpackers from the Tibetan villages along the Lanzhou to Chengdu route, that would be a huge mistake. Backpackers are apolitical, harmless, and they bring a lot of business to the villages in this area.