THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER

No Permits Required for Tibet Travel

Deutsche Presse Agentur
September 12, 2006
Lhasa/Beijing

Travel to Tibet will be eased on October 1 when the government will no longer require foreign tourists to have special permits to enter the highest region on Earth, according to Wu Jilie, vice-chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional government. The government in Tibet will waive existing travel restrictions and open more areas of Tibets for tourism, the government official told journalists in Lhasa on Tuesday.

Wu Jilie confirmed that Tibet was still the poorest region of China and that tourism needed to be further developed to change that. In July, China opened a new railway, the highest in the world, linking Beijing to Lhasa, that will ease the transport of tourists and goods into the remote region.

In the next decade several billion dollars are to be invested into Tibet, that will include links to India, Nepal and into western Tibet. Critics say the main aim of Beijing in improving transport links is to facilitate Han Chinese settlers into the region to speed up the absorption of Tibet into China.