I think a lot of the Tibetan regions in the areas just outside Tibet (Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu) are a lot more Tibetan than Tibet itself these days. Probably due to the lack of military presence and tourists. Lhasa was kind of disappointing for me, since I had been to lot of cooler places before. Lhasa at this point is majority Han Chinese and filled with tour groups of foreigners and Chinese yuppies. Outside the "old city" it's just turning a generic Chinese city.

That being said, outside the big cities, the natural landscape in Tibet is just sick. It's like driving around on another planet.

Looks awesome Syndr0m. Never even heard of that area before I'd love to go there.

I've heard that Tibet is especially bad though, and not only is everything a tourist trap, but it is actually made fake by the govt. Like the locals are removed and replaced type of thing.

Either way would love to read the TR. I enjoyed the Harbin one a lot, and both are places I doubt I'll ever make it to.

Ill post pictures when im not lazy. Camera is at home and im at work now.

I will not post the specifics on how I got my travel permit on this forum, so do not ask. From what i hear its very difficult to get one now and your best bet is to go through nepal or chengdu. Im also not making this into a giant thread because i dont want a lot of attention about it.

Ive been wanting to do this trip for a while. Its just something about the forbiddeness that has always made me want to go to Tibet, meet and interact with the people who respects the land as much as an native american respects his.

Flew direct into lhasa from beijing. It was a long flight and the altitude kills you when you get there. I couldnt get any diamox (a prescription specifically for altitude sickness and adjustment) so my parents, both physicians, recommended taking half a viagra. I had a giant erection for the next 3 hours (first time taking it). I've been skiing 3-4 times a year for about 20 years, and the altitude still hit me like a ton of bricks.

Got finally got into my hotel which was supposed to be a 5 star hotel. It was an absolute dump, that looked like it hadn't been maintained in centuries. Ended up going somewhere else, a legit 5 star hotel, and it cost me like 250 USD a night (which isnt too bad for me).

Me and my gf were beat. I had a raging erection but she could barley breath so obv nothings going to happen no matter how much i try to convince her she doesnt have to do anything work whatsoever. I went out and walked around. Bought a bunch of little trinkets to bring co-workers.

Came home and she is hungry but doesnt want to go out. so i have to go back out find a decent resturant and get some food to go. Ended up being some Xinjiang food and it wasnt too bad.

Next day we wake up early, mostly because she cant sleep in altitude and refuses to take my ambien because its not natural. We get out side with the intention of going to The Potala Palace. No taxis. We decide to take the bus. As we get on the bus driver asks to see my travel permit. Now this is really weird as nobody has ever asked to see my visa or anything in the many years ive been here.

My gf informs him my papers are none of his goddamn buisness and to just continue driving. He doesnt move and calls the police who show up in less than 4 minutes. They ask to see my papers, which are obviously at the hotel because who the hell walks around with thier travel permits? They tell me i must go down the police station and wait until my gf brings my documents.

Panic sets in. I dont want to be beat to death in a tibetan prison because my gf insulted the bus driver. We beg and beg and finally convince the cops to come with us up to our hotel rooms to go get the papers. Did that and no problems. I asked if i can just photocopy and bring that with us. Nope gotta be the real thing.

Find a taxi after waiting another like 20 minutes. Get to Potala Palace do some pictures etc.

Note: do not take pictures inside here. A monk threatened to break my camera the next time i took a picture INSIDE the palace, screamed at me that i was being disrespectful by wearing a star of David around my neck. It occurred to me im not in kansas anymore.

Hit up the summer palace after that. More of the same thing.

Both of us were starving so we found some pretty crowded Tibetan resturant. The dropped off the most undrinkable "butter" tea (thats what my gf translated it as, no fing idea what it was). Took forever to get our food but it was pretty decent. Yak was very good.

My parents asked me to buy them a authentic rug. But it turns out thats not so easy to get as half the crap comes from qinghai or nepal. 4 stores and 15,000 RMB later my rug is shipped off to America. Ate again and called it a night.

Woke up early and went to Jokhang Temple. Walked around Old Lhasa, ate, spent money and took pictures. Pretty standard. Nothing super cultural there like i expected it to be.

Next day we head to qamdo. Ill continue the trip report after my meeting (should only be like 45 minutes)

Wow it sounds pretty ****ty so far

sounds like you should get a new girlfriend, she ruined the whole trip for u

You should've known that though if you'd have done some reading. Foreigners are not allowed to use public transport in Tibet and the driver would get into serious trouble if he'd take you on. That's why he called the cops.

They use rancid butter for those teas so the taste is kinda acquired.

I wouldn't recommend going to Tibet, laserbody is right regarding the chinese yuppies and foreigners part.

I've been living in Sichuan for a while now and the tibetans here (both monks and normal people) are unfriendly backward dbags.

Might've partially to do with the fact that they don't get along with the Chinese too well, but most of them seem like douchebags in general.

My overall impression of Lhasa: I knew this was going to be the most "modern" of the tibetan regions we went to but i still expected it to be different from any of the 100 teriary poopholes ive been to in china. It wasnt. Aside from the impressive palaces there wasnt anything really "tibet" about this place. People dressed like anywhere in china, ate the same thing and lived in crummy rundown buildings. I can see that anywhere in china.

Qamdo:

Tiny chartered plane to a ****hole of an airport. And a zillion mile drive to our hotel.

THIS is what i expected tibet to be. Lots of tibet themed hotels and resturants and shops. When i spend money here i know it is going into the hands of local tibetans. Went swimming in the river (it was ****ing freezing at this time, my gf called me ******ed). shopped ate and saw some random palace (i forget the name of it).

LOTS of monks live here. I did my research and know whats ok to discuss and what isnt with them. We still had a lot of interesting conversations as they had never met a jewish person before and were curious about our beliefs. im a chankuah and passover jew and was probably not the best choice of people to explain our religious beliefs to tibetans. ALL of them asked for money after we talked, my gf being buddist gave it to them.

Was asked for travel permit a bunch of times, but the only unpleasentness came when some ******* screamed at my gf in tibetan after i finished swimming. he got up in our face and neither of us had any idea what he was saying. I pushed him away and we left, still no idea what the hell he was talking about.

Good internet accsess at our hotel btw. There was 3G in lhasa but not here.

Another tiny plane and we were in Xigatse. Also a zillion miles from the airport.

This was a more industrial looking town. Still had a decent amount of tibetian flavor left. Also very tiny. Could take 3 wheeled cars or walk basically anywhere. Only site worth seeing was some temple that had the worlds largest buddah. but after 5 different temples in a week its just AFT.

Less "religousy" than the other two cities but still interesting. Old town and some shopping and eating and ended up getting to see some tibetan dance thing.

Food was much better here than the other two cities. Yak tasted just like beef in case you were wondering.

From xigaste to chengdu to beijing and back to work.

Cliffs: Meh. If you go to tibet, dont just go to Lhasa.

Just general laowei stuff like cafes + some park / greenery preferably not next to construction sites / developing areas.

I was kinda unimpressed by downtown Gongbei but I haven't been anywhere else.

It'd suck if I had to go to Macau every day just to not hate my life.

I know that there is more than one but I think Gongbei is the closest to downtown Macau city right?

wan zai drops you off closer to downtown.

It's also much quicker unless there is no line at Gongbei, and you get to sit for most of it.

Yeah i made it sound worse than it really was. That whole ordeal with the cops only took like 30 minutes so it wasn't a big deal. it wasnt a fantastic trip overall, probably 6/10.

now i know about public transport there.

From my very limited experience with Tibetans id say its about 20/20/60 Open, in your face, FU Chinese douchebags/ Closet doucebags who wont talk to you/ friendly people

But its easier to remember the less friendly people.

I spent a few weeks in Tibet last year. I also spent a few weeks backpacking around Sichuan and Yunnan the year before that.

Honestly if you just want to go experience Tibetan culture and drink butter tea, you are better off traveling around Western Sichuan. I think the Tibetans there a bit more laid back as there aren't police boxes on every corner and snipers on all the rooftops. (they are still pretty surly though, LOL) Also there aren't foreign tour groups and hordes of rich Chinese crawling all over the place. I went to Litang during some kind of Tibetan horse festival a couple years ago and it was awesome. Danba is also amazing, one of my favorite places in China that I've been to.

Tibet is still pretty cool though and worth going to, especially if you like like the outdoors or like photography. A lot of people are hating on it and lots of aspects of it are a huge pain in the ass, but it was still probably the most memorable experience of my time in China, especially Mount Kailas and Guge Kingdom.

What's funny is that by the train station in Lhasa there's a huge monument dedicated to the Chinese "liberation" of Tibet in 1951. LOL!

Also no one is allowed to mention or have pictures of the current Dalai Lama. And the tour guides are forced to give the Chinese version of Tibetan (Tibet has always been a part of China and never been a sovereign nation, Dalai Lama regime used to cut off people's arms, etc).

Unless you are a resident of South Korea, have an Alien Registration Card OR have been to China in the last two years, you CANNOT get a Visa to China from Korea.

As far as I can tell, the easiest way (aside from getting it in your home country, which btw is probably by far the easiest) would be to get it from Hong Kong (would be cool if anyone could confirm this - have a friend who wants to go to China next month but has never been and getting Visa from back in the US is a bit of a hassle for him).

I can confirm that. http://www.chinavisa.com.hk/ can sort him out. Americans pay more than standard charges though as the same is true for Chinese people that want to go to the US.

Have you tried a Chinese travel agency in South Korea?

I don't have any experience in South Korea, but I was refused a visa at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo a couple months ago, and I assume it's all a part of the same crackdown on foreigners that's going on right now.

Someone at the embassy referred me to a Chinese travel agency down the street. They were able to process one for me, though I was only able to get a 30 day and I paid like $250 (it's more expensive for Americans).

Has always been like this. In many countries incl. all of Europe you can only get a Chinese Visa if you're residing in the country and can prove it.

Seems you were lucky that the travel agent had an inside connection.

The crackdown is just a Beijing thing. Partially because of sketchy foreigners there and in another part to shift blame for everything that is wrong in China towards foreigners. Simple people eat it up or want to believe it as protesting against corrupt officials wouldn't end well.

Kids of rich officials ballin' it up in Beijing:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...officials.html

just got back to macau and was told no more poker at lisboa.... is this true?

Brad, any comments?

Yeah we pretty much knew it was some high gov't officials kid that died...

now we know which one.

Ty, he's got a canadian passport as well so he'll probably get away a bit cheaper :P

You are actually only allowed to apply through a travel agency in Korea/Japan (to my understanding) as an individual. I got a Visa to China from Korea last year, but that was because I had already been earlier in the year (with a Visa from LA, it's funny that I can apply from LA despite not being an American). If you haven't been to China in the previous 2 years, you wont be able to apply from Korea (or, I think, Japan but not sure about the latter, would be cool if anyone knew).

You can get a Chinese visa in Japan if you have a Gaijin Card, otherwise it's not possible officially.

In the end it's all about finding agents with access to corrupt officials within the embassy though.

If that's not possible just fly to HK and get a same day visa (probably not available for Americans most of the time). Might even save you some money as flights to pretty much anywhere within the mainland are cheap from there and it's a nice place to visit for a couple days.

He's going to China at the end of the month, but I need to visa run anyway so we're just gonna combine it and take a weekend in HK, maybe pop over to Macau for a day (depends on if he can get single day service I guess, as otherwise I'd imagine he'd be without a passport and unable to go HK->Macau?).

Is there anywhere that has like, consolidated info on what games you can find/where in Macau or should I just look through this thread? Not interested in anything highstakes (10/25 to 25/50 HKD sounds about right for me - I have pretty much no live experience and am just getting back into poker after a long hiatus.), and would prefer PLO if it actually runs.

It's correct that there's nowhere legal to play poker on HK anymore right?

Not sure if you can get a visa during the weekend. I think the Chinese embassy is closed then.

Same day is also only possible if you come in pretty early.

You need a passport for Macau, maybe a HKID would work too but not too sure about that.

Are you in Korea or Japan right now?

Just head to Wynn, I haven't been to Macau for a while now so not sure if there is still poker at the Grand Lisboa or Starworld (always been empty when I went), but you can just walk there and have a look. Macau city is small and all the casinos are next to each other.

I hope you are wrong about that, I went by the info on http://www.fbt-chinavisa.com.hk/ which was recommended in this thread, and they have 1 day available 'mon to sat, sundays closed' >_< Dearly hope you are wrong as already booked yesterday.

Am in Korea atm, and thanks

Has anybody tried to get pages added to their US passport while in China? How long does it take to do?

Does it matter which consulate I go to?