Travel Guides > China > Tibet

Locked away in its Himalayan fortress, Tibet has long exercised a unique hold on the imagination of the West: 'Shangri-La', 'the Land of Snows', 'the Rooftop of the World', Tibet is mysterious in a way that few other places are. Most of Tibet is an immense plateau which lies at altitudes from 4000 to 5000m, but inhabitants tend to cluster in the valleys in the country's east. Tibet's strategic importance, straddling the Himalaya between China and the Indian subcontinent, made it irresistible to China who invaded in 1950.

The inclusion of Tibet in a destination profile of China is intended to reflect the realities of travel in the region and does not in any way confer approval of the Chinese annexation of this Buddhist kingdom. Tibet was opened to foreign tourism in 1984, closed to all but tour groups in 1987 after a virtual uprising by Tibetans in Lhasa, and reopened in 1992, though with some ludicrous permit requirements. The present Chinese policy on individual tourism in Tibet basically seems to be one of extorting as much cash as possible from foreigners, but not so much as to scare them off completely.