China crisis in Tibet
Updated on 11 August 2007
An influx of Chinese tourists into Tibet has prompted concerns among locals intent on retaining their culture.
A new railway link from Beijing to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa has been the catalyst for the huge number of visitors.
Trains, which started operating last summer, carry 6,000 people in and out of the remote city every day during peak seasons and the number of tourists in the first half of the year doubled to more than 3 million.
But Tibetan activists have warned that tourism and an influx of Chinese immigrants, could swap their homeland's distinctive culture, with locals people receiving less than their share of new jobs and income.
Local officials claim that there will be restrictions on popular sightseeing areas to control numbers.
China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since the 1950s when soldiers moved into the mountain kingdom following the communist seizure of power by Mao zedong.
Tibet's revered spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled on horseback after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and now lives in exile in northern India.
The Chinese government is routinely accused of human rights abuses against supporters of Tibetan independence who are said to face long prison sentences and beatings.
China however, claims to have spend huge sums of money improving the lives of ordinary citizens - transforming the country from an isolated medieval kingdom ruled by Buddhist monks into a place of increasing prosperity connected to the outside world
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