Behind a Chinese screen
By Pablo M. Díaz
Although North Korea It is reputed to be the most impenetrable place in the world for the international press., It is even more difficult for a foreign journalist to travel abroad. Tibet. In order to avoid demonstrations and protests, the authoritarian regime of Beijing maintains this region of Himalayaalways closed to media and diplomats, sometimes vetoing even the entry of tourists, who must request a special permit apart from their Chinese visa.
The sacred lake Namtso, where Buddhist pilgrims follow the “kora” (circuit) of prayer, It is one of the highest in the world, a 4.718 metros.
As the 500 foreign correspondents accredited in China we are prohibited from going to Tibet, The only way to visit it is to be included in the few trips that the authorities organize year after year., where places are counted and restricted to one per country. Together with eleven international media, among them Financial Times, Reuters, Le Figaro, Bloomberg, The mirrorl y Ansa, ABC He was the only Spanish representative authorized to visit Tibet in a recent trip organized by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Quite a privilege because, despite control and propaganda, This displacement allowed us to verify on the ground the reality in Tibet. After the trip in first train between Beijing and Lhasa, which I myself carried out in July 2006, ABC returns to Tibet.
Daily, Thousands of worshipers pray in front of the Jokhang Temple and the Potala Palace, in Lhasa.
A jungle of cranes has grown in the old sacred city of Lhasa, which already houses a third of the three million people who live in this vast region that occupies twice the size of Spain, of which the 92 percent are Tibetans and other very small minorities and the rest of the ethnic "He”. Of that million plus inhabitants that Lhasa already has, only half (580.000) They are permanent residents. The rest, mostly Han Chinese” coming from other provinces, He only stays in the city for work reasons during the mild spring and summer months as it is the peak tourist season., which last year reached the figure of 15 Millions of visitors. Many of them arrived on the train that connects Beijing with Lhasa from 2006, a colossal work of engineering that is the highest railway line in the world as it crosses mountains that exceed the 5.000 metros. The majority of these tourists were nationals due to restrictions on foreigners. Due to the mass suicides of Buddhist monks to protest against China, that have been charged 138 lives since 2009, Beijing frequently closes Tibet to foreign tourists, who need a special permit in addition to their Chinese visa and cannot visit many “sensitive” areas. Despite the evident progress that Chinese modernization has brought, many Tibetans see it as colonization.
