Girls perform traditional Tibetan dance in Maizhokunggar County of Lhasa, capital of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, Feb. 10, 2014. Over 100 artists offer a splendid cultural feast including Tibetan opera and dance to local farmers and herdsmen in Maizhokunggar County. During the Spring Festival, various art troupes have given art performances in rural…

  The Potala Palace at dawn, shot on the Chakpori Hill, Lhasa. Situated in the red hills of Lhasa, the Potala Palace is considered as the pearl of Tibet. It combines the functions of a palace, castle and temple into one magnificent building. In 1961, the Potala Palace became designated as one of the first…

  A bowl of highland barley wine or a cup of buttered tea is the first greeting from Tibetan people for visitors to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Being an essential drink of Tibetans, buttered tea symbolizes both local life and folk culture. Thus tea pots and kettles also become livelihood necessities in Tibet. The various buttered…

  The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has delivered around 7.51 million passengers and 40.49 million tons of cargos in the previous year. In 2013, new management mechanisms and transportation modes were applied in order to gear up the efficiency of the railway operation, according to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company. The enhanced transportation capacity, for both passengers and…

  There are 1,500 lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau scattering around the snowy mountains like pearls at the altitude of 4,100 to 4,900 meters. They cover an area of 241.83 square kilometers, accounting for one third of the total areas of lakes in China. Among them, the Namtso Lake, the Lake Manasarovar and the Yamdroktso…

  Tibet Autonomous Region received a record 230,000 tourists during the just-ended Spring Festival holiday. The number of visitors from home and abroad to the plateau land over the week-long holiday, which ended on Thursday, grew 7.81 percent year on year, with tourism revenues increasing 13.3 percent to 185 million yuan (30.5 million U.S. dollars).

  In recent years, a growing number of tourists prefer to spend in the Chinese lunar New Year in Lhasa, capital city of Tibet. Every year since the New Year’s Eve, the hotels, big or small, are full of tourists from different corners of China.

  Tibetans have started to prepare for Losar, Tibetan New Year that falls on March 2 this year. The fairs and markets in Tibet’s Shigatse are full of people carrying sheep heads (an essential item for the New Year sacrifice) or Tibetan wooden boxes, and walking in a rush to pick various items for the…

  Nagri, located in northwest Tibet, is the “closest land to heaven”. On top of the world’s roof, this place welcomes its night at about 9pm. Tourists always get lost in the milk way at that moment, which is so pure and magnificent.

Tibetans in Lhasa have been preparing for the new year of both the Tibetan calendar and Chinese lunar calendar. Residents are immersed in purchasing New Year goods, including traditional decorations, clothing and other gifts, which enhances the happy atmosphere in Lhasa.