It has taken a full week for Xinhua, the Chinese national news agency, to release this report of unrest in Tibet. Why? See title. They needed time to spin the event to make it look like everything is just peachy. And forget the idea that government workers “persuaded” rioters to go home. Two women on our trip witnessed firsthand what happens when the Chinese government “persuades” people.  They watched three police gang up on a middle-aged women and knock her to the ground and kick around her groceries. Hmph.

(more…)

Lhasa sits on a plain over 13,000 feet above sea level. The sun is bright, the views are sweeping, and the air…well, the air is thin. For many lower-altitude people, this means altitude sickness.

Here in Mississippi we’re only a few feet above sea level, and on the coast, many folks are below sea level. The atmospheric density is far above Tibet’s, and the humidity is much higher. Moving quickly from this low altitude to the high one–as we did–can produce symptoms in some people. (It’s not so much the altitude itself as it is the speed at which you move to it.) However, even this doesn’t always determine whether you will get sick–some people just seem to be more susceptible than others.

(more…)