China reopens Tibet to foreigners

Tibet was thrown open to foreign tourists on Wednesday, more than three months after worst anti-China protests in two decades.

Tibet was thrown open to foreign tourists on Wednesday, more than three months after it was kept out of bounds in the wake of unrest following the worst anti-China protests in two decades in the remote Himalayan region.

Tourists from Sweden landed in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, opening it to the outside world while another batch is arriving from Singapore on Sunday, officials said.

“The success of the Olympic torch relay held in Lhasa demonstrated that the foundation for social stability has been further consolidated,” Tanor, Deputy Director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Bureau of Tourism, said.

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The Beijing Olympic torch was paraded under the hawk-eye vigil of security personnel for three hours in Lhasa on Saturday, marking the Tibetan leg of the relay, which was troubled by protests on its global run in Paris, London and San Francisco.

The regional government stopped issuing tourist permits to overseas travellers after the March 14 riots during protests led by monks to mark the anniversary of a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to India.

The protests led to violence claiming 20 lives and to a crackdown by Beijing that brought global attention on the Tibet issue ahead of the Olympics. China has blamed the Dalai Lama for the violence, a charge the Nobel laureate has denied.

Local travel agencies have now prepared themselves for a tourist surge.

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