After two days dodging checkpoints to get to Lhasa it’s not quite the “holy city” i was expecting.
The Chinese have transformed it into something of a Tibetan theme park for moneyed western tour groups (hence the checkpoint dodging bit – i wasn’t prepared to cough up 120 pounds for a Tibetan permit I’d never see and no-one would ever ask for).
The real Lhasa exists, but it’s been relegated to a small square around a temple surrounded by identikit Chinese streets and shops.
Seeing Han Chinese doing a brisk trade flogging traditional Tibetan prayer wheels to tourists who wouldn’t recognise a Tibetan if one took off their slipper and slapped them across the face with it is a tad disturbing.