The road to our university is decked with Chinese flags. Something new today.
It's a little over a week before the 18th Party Congress is held in Beijing, which will usher in China's new leadership elite. Perhaps that's why this small city in northwestern China -- a backwater on the cusp of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau -- has been decked with the national flag.
My Tibetan teacher scorned my new jacket. "It stinks," she said. "It's rubbish. You might as well throw it away."
It smelt a little musty, shop worn, dusty. But she was going over the top. It's green, with fake fur trim, Tibetan style. If David Tang (of Hong Kong's upmarket Shanghai Tang designer store) went Lhasa he might design something like this. 70 yuan. A bargain I thought the night before at the bus station market when I snapped it up. Not so for Trashi. "70 yuan! I wouldn't have paid 20."
As she left the classroom she said: "Seriously. Hang it out on your balcony. Let the sun and wind get to it. Air it out. Otherwise you'll poison someone with the smell." She walked off laughing.
Tibetan humour.
It's a little over a week before the 18th Party Congress is held in Beijing, which will usher in China's new leadership elite. Perhaps that's why this small city in northwestern China -- a backwater on the cusp of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau -- has been decked with the national flag.
My Tibetan teacher scorned my new jacket. "It stinks," she said. "It's rubbish. You might as well throw it away."
It smelt a little musty, shop worn, dusty. But she was going over the top. It's green, with fake fur trim, Tibetan style. If David Tang (of Hong Kong's upmarket Shanghai Tang designer store) went Lhasa he might design something like this. 70 yuan. A bargain I thought the night before at the bus station market when I snapped it up. Not so for Trashi. "70 yuan! I wouldn't have paid 20."
As she left the classroom she said: "Seriously. Hang it out on your balcony. Let the sun and wind get to it. Air it out. Otherwise you'll poison someone with the smell." She walked off laughing.
Tibetan humour.
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