From The International Herald Tribune, via A Glimpse of the World blog:
There are no boundary markers at the edge of this town to signal to travelers that they are entering a different world, but the feeling could not be more distinct even if there were.
It hits in multiple ways: the sudden change in grade to the roads as they work their way toward the clouds and beyond; the rugged look of the people, stout and tawny folk wrapped in chubas, blanket-like outerwear, instead of coats.
Most remarkable, though, is the change in the greetings, or rather, what is no longer said. In the east of China, everywhere a Westerner goes, he can be expected to be greeted with cries of “lao wai,” literally old outsider, but meaning foreigner. Here it was just “hello.”
This region of China’s rugged west is inhabited by people of Tibetan descent, people whose universe has been rearranged by more powerful people to the east. [Full Text]
