China closes Tibet to tourists
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China has closed Tibet to foreign tourists ahead of next month’s highly sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, according to tour agencies and other industry people who had spoken to AFP.
“Authorities asked tour agents to stop organising foreigners coming to Tibet for tour trips until 1 April,” an employee at a government-run travel agency in Lhasa was quoted in an AFP report.
He said the city’s tourism bureau had decided this at a meeting in mid-February, although the report said it was unclear when exactly the orders were given.
A hotel in the Tibetan capital and three travel agencies in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu that normally organise trips into Tibet had also confirmed the ban on foreigners, AFP said.
This is the second time in less than a year that Tibet has been sealed off to foreign tourists.
China had banned travellers from going to Tibet immediately after riots erupted in Lhasa on 14 March after four days of peaceful protests to mark the 49th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule.
The uprising took place in 1959 and led to Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fleeing his homeland.
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