Tibet 2008

 I departed the U.S. on April 1, 2008, stopping in Chengdu for three exhausting days with my sponsored students, Baji and Cimu.  Here is how it unfolded.

In the afternoon, April 2, 2008 I arrived at the new Beijing Terminal. After passing through immigration and customs, I found my way to the domestic terminal.   It is a fantastic new terminal and well staffed with English speaking assistants to guide the travelers through the process.

It was in Chengdu where I encountered the first problem of the trip.  My mobile phone did not work, making it impossible for me to call Cimu to pick me up as we had arranged.  I coaxed a girl at the taxi service desk to use her cell phone to call and soon Cimu came running across three lanes of traffic to greet me with a big hug. 

Her college is in a suburb of Chengdu near the airport so it was a short ride to a village at the edge of the campus where I checked into a small guest house above a small restaurant.

The room was nice, clean and bright, and I slept very well after my long travel day.  When I went downstairs the next morning for a breath of fresh air, the owners of my “hotel” beckoned me into their small restaurant for breakfast.  I had four meat filled baozi (mo mo’s) and a bowl of rice porridge.  When I tried to pay, they said no, it was included in the price of the room.  That meant that for 20 yuan ($3.00) per day I was getting a comfortable room and complementary breakfast.  That’s the best deal in town.

 Cimu has a friend who she calls her "brother".  He is in graduate school, a student leader in the Tibetan Department and very bright.  He is very attentive and Cimu leads him around on a string (ha ha).  He has taught her many things about using the computer, including how to make a video of her pictures.  They showed me several of them and I was impressed.  She had done this on computers in the school internet bar so she was ecstatic when I gave her my granddaughter's old laptop with the defective screen.

The three of us walked to the campus where I saw her dormitory building and toured the Tibetan library.  Cimu went to class while “brother” and I went to his dorm room to download and view my pictures. After her class, Cimu rejoined us and off we went from place to place on the campus and then back to the village to eat and to my room.  I fell asleep as they downloaded video taken with my new camcorder.

On the second day of my visit the three of us took a taxi into Chengdu to deposit my cash in the bank and get my phone fixed.  Baji joined us for lunch and afterward  took me to China Mobile while Cimu and Tsewong (brother) took the laptop to get fixed.  Baji is doing well in school, specializing in tourism and English.  She is quite happy in her current situation and when we parted I promised to spend time at her school on my next visit to Chengdu.

I went on to Kangding arriving at the apartment in the afternoon of April 7th.  Earlier in the year I had casually mentioned to Mary the idea of upgrading to a bigger apartment  and while I was still in the U.S. she located a nice one which she urged me to buy.  That first evening she took me to look at it and the next day we moved.  She was so sure I would approve, she had made all of the arrangements.

Travel for foreign tourists was quite restricted at the time so I stayed in the apartment, but after a month, I needed a change of scenery and decided to go to Xining and see my friends there.