Much has changed much has remained the same When I first visited Lhasa in 2003 there was no rail connection so we flew in The QinghaindashTibet railway the highest in the world and an engineering marvel almost 2000 km long was only completed in 2006 I had ridden the train shortly after completion and enjoyed the experience

This time confined to the middle berth of a ldquohard sleeperrdquo by the boom in domestic Chinese tourism vainly trying to sleep as we were shunted ever higher I wondered whether perhaps the greatest changes were in me My ability to endure hard beds horrible toilets and the chattering of my carriage companions who only stopped talking when they were eating seems to have diminished However after the decision to pursue a long-held ambition to hold a board meeting in Lhasa which came to involve a group of 37 individuals best described as ldquomaturerdquo it had been decided that a gradual acclimatization via Xining (altitude 2200 metres) and the 21-hour train journey was probably the best way to proceed

This gradualist approach combined with the liberal distribution of little

red altitude tablets from Tibet Rhodiola and occasional inhalations from bottles of oxygen seemed to do the trick We did not lose anyone and the complaint of headaches due to the thin air of Lhasa (altitude 3600 metres) seemed to fade even when a group crossed the Lagela Pass (5200 metres) When set against the terrible privations which adventurous foreigners from the 19th century had put up with just for a sight of the mysterious Tibetan capital our minor inconveniences were of course as nothing

Lhasa now in many ways resembles a typical moderately prosperous Chinese town if one could ignore the Sanskrit lettering on signs about the Chinese characters Han Chinese now make up about 60 of Lhasarsquos population though much less in the rural areas I did not see any ldquobig boxrdquo retail stores but there were many smart boutiques showing the latest fashions The streets are clean and the billboards carry about the same amount of propaganda as in ldquomainland Chinardquo (as one of the guides described it) The ldquoChina dreamrdquo and the 12 ldquocore socialist valuesrdquo were in evidence as elsewhere but there was perhaps a higher proportion of posters about protecting the environment usually erected in front of some grim construction site or other blot on the landscape

A letter from Lhasa30 June 2018

The view from the train

Downtown Xining

Outside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa

Once you escape the Lhasa suburbs ndash about a 40-minute bus ride the evidence of the governmentrsquos massive investment into Tibet is abundant brand new electricity pylons glint silver on the top of towering crags like latter-day Cathar redoubts One major project is the upgrading of Motorway 109 which will link Lhasa ultimately with Beijing

There are of course strategic reasons for binding this vast and important though lightly populated (33 million inhabitants) region to the rest of China But the project is welcomed by exporting businesses The low-capacity railway is designed

only for passenger trains and one chrome miner I talked to only an hour outside Lhasa still has to truck his ore expensively down off the plateau

Importers also benefit Tibet is poor in fruits and vegetables so the improved transport links have definitely improved the Tibetan diet The staple green barley can be seen in small plots around Lhasa and in river valleys

Your correspondent visited a green-barley beer plant the government subsidies on the income statement and the decent profit margins despite low utilisation reflect the support that the government is willing to offer to entrepreneurs brave enough to invest on this frontier The beer isnrsquot bad either

Security here is certainly at a higher pitch than elsewhere in China apart perhaps from in Xinjiang Apart from the special permission required to travel here the passport of your inoffensive correspondent was checked regularly throughout the trip There are bored boy soldiers in outsized helmets lounging at strategic junctions in the city but they normally carry batons rather than guns At a post below the Potala Palace they contrasted strangely with the

procession of faithful Tibetans circumnavigating the palace with prayer wheels turning or covering the ground by prostrating themselves Apparently a full circuit using the latter method takes about nine hours As I watched one of the ladies rather spoiled the medieval effect by straightening herself after one full-length kowtow and answering her cell phone

Each of the Tibetan guides we met discouraged any question about politics My query about an impressive ruin on the top of a hill went unanswered (apparently the Cultural Revolution reduced the number of monasteries in Tibet from 6000 to 13) But it is perhaps too easy to become misty-eyed about the fate of the Dalai Lama If there is a degree of religious toleration

as there appears to be now have the Tibetans not benefited overall from Chinese control Would todayrsquos Tibetans be as well off in a tiny land-locked theocracy

Crossing the road in Lhasa

Road building at Namsto

In the valleys

Green barley

The Tibetan meat-based diet

Prepared for the Potala

Once you escape the Lhasa suburbs ndash about a 40-minute bus ride the evidence of the governmentrsquos massive investment into Tibet is abundant brand new electricity pylons glint silver on the top of towering crags like latter-day Cathar redoubts One major project is the upgrading of Motorway 109 which will link Lhasa ultimately with Beijing

There are of course strategic reasons for binding this vast and important though lightly populated (33 million inhabitants) region to the rest of China But the project is welcomed by exporting businesses The low-capacity railway is designed

only for passenger trains and one chrome miner I talked to only an hour outside Lhasa still has to truck his ore expensively down off the plateau

Importers also benefit Tibet is poor in fruits and vegetables so the improved transport links have definitely improved the Tibetan diet The staple green barley can be seen in small plots around Lhasa and in river valleys

Your correspondent visited a green-barley beer plant the government subsidies on the income statement and the decent profit margins despite low utilisation reflect the support that the government is willing to offer to entrepreneurs brave enough to invest on this frontier The beer isnrsquot bad either

Security here is certainly at a higher pitch than elsewhere in China apart perhaps from in Xinjiang Apart from the special permission required to travel here the passport of your inoffensive correspondent was checked regularly throughout the trip There are bored boy soldiers in outsized helmets lounging at strategic junctions in the city but they normally carry batons rather than guns At a post below the Potala Palace they contrasted strangely with the

procession of faithful Tibetans circumnavigating the palace with prayer wheels turning or covering the ground by prostrating themselves Apparently a full circuit using the latter method takes about nine hours As I watched one of the ladies rather spoiled the medieval effect by straightening herself after one full-length kowtow and answering her cell phone

Each of the Tibetan guides we met discouraged any question about politics My query about an impressive ruin on the top of a hill went unanswered (apparently the Cultural Revolution reduced the number of monasteries in Tibet from 6000 to 13) But it is perhaps too easy to become misty-eyed about the fate of the Dalai Lama If there is a degree of religious toleration

as there appears to be now have the Tibetans not benefited overall from Chinese control Would todayrsquos Tibetans be as well off in a tiny land-locked theocracy

Crossing the road in Lhasa

Road building at Namsto

In the valleys

Green barley

The Tibetan meat-based diet

Prepared for the Potala

The piles of gold in the Potala contrast accusingly with the small rural subsistence farms where piles of yak dung are lined up outside for winter fuel The first Europeans to see Lhasa in 1904 remarked upon the squalor of Lhasarsquos dung-filled streets and their contrast with the wealth of the monasteries And who is to say that the influence is all one way I have written elsewhere about the renewed search by Chinese in a time of increasing material security for meaning On the slow train two of my fellow travellers were middle-class ladies from Beijing ndash a lawyer and a nurse ndash who were on their way to Lhasa to learn how Buddhism could help them in their lives They fingered 108-bead bracelets and meditated as we rolled through the tundra

The thinness of the air heightens the visitorrsquos sensitivity to the sights perhaps by reminding him or her of the tenuousness of existence In this context the Tibetan landscape is vast and empty Glaciers which are the source of most of Asiarsquos

main rivers hang seemingly within reach only another 2000 metres above The lakes they fill are bright turquoise beneath the close sky Black dots high on the mountains are yaks seemingly defying gravity A lone farmer walks across the treeless landscape there is no obvious place where he might have come from or to which he is heading it is clear only that he has a long way to go Crags flutter with five-colour prayer flags High above vultures circle Much has changed but Tibet remains a special place

Chris Ruffle June 2018

wwwodfundcom

Chris Ruffle serves as consultant to Open Door providing insight on the Chinese markets and investment opportunities

Itrsquos safest to photograph Tibetan mastiffs when theyrsquore asleep

Prayer flags and glaciers

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Please note the investment opportunities identified and described may not represent actual investments or be representative of the entire portfolio The investments discussed herein are for illustrative purposes only and it should not be assumed that such investments were or will be profitable or that the investments or recommendations Open Door makes in the future will be profitable or will equal the anticipated results discussed herein Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results You should not rely on this presentation as the basis upon which to make an investment decision There can be no assurance that investment objectives will be achieved Investors must be prepared to bear the risk of a total loss of their investment