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Breaking News - Chinese Communists tighten the already intense situation in Lhasa with tours forbidden in Tibet

After the outburst of protests in Lhasa, the Chinese communist government banned Tibet’s tourism, which has been extended to tour groups from within the mainland. According to a tour guide of a local travel agency in Lhasa, at present, in addition to local travel agents that have been prohibited from receiving foreigners, even mainland people of other provinces are banned from entering Tibet. As to when Lhasa will be re-open to the outside world, no one knows.

Earlier this month Tibet officials once claimed that the entire local tourism market will be re-open on May 1, and welcome overseas tourism visitors to Lhasa. However, the recent situation had a sudden turn. Apart from that delayed reception promised to overseas tourists, large-scale arrests of monks launched last week. Now local travel agencies are not allowed to receive tourism groups from other provinces of the Mainland. Only mainland FIT (free and independent tourists) are allowed to enter Lhasa, but they will be required to undergo police checkings and questionings along the way.

A tour guide from Lhasa disclosed this new situation: “The tourists from within the Mainland are now banned from entering Tibet. “The Permit for Entering Tibet” has been stopped now, and no one is allowed to enter Tibet, which means, there is no foreign tourism in Lhasa. If from within the Mainland, it is possible that they might be in the FIT.”

It is reported that since March 14, the Tibetan people’s protest actions launched in Lhasa had been under armed suppression. The authorities stopped issuing “the Permit to enter Tibet” in late March for foreigners. But lately, the authorities expanded the restricted scope to the urban areas of Lhasa and the important junctions in Lhasa with the armed police setting up layers and layers of checking posts.

As for the current situation in Lhasa, the Tibetan Women Writer Weise wrote in her blog on Sunday that recently in Lhasa the various entertainment places such as dance halls, nightclubs, karaoke rooms, restaurants, bath centres, foot shops, beauty salons Shops continue to operate and the sex industry is also continuing. But Tibetans Langma Halls where mainly Tibetan songs and dances are performed have not been allowed to re-open to customers, fearing Tibetans will gather into crowds to make trouble.

In the streets of Lhasa, tourist spots that are enjoyed most at home and abroad such as the old style of the Potala Palace, the venues for purchasing Tibetan handicrafts, photo-taking outside the Jokhang Temple and other scenes no longer exist.

The above news is brought to you by Xiwen and hosted by Chris Thomas for Breaking News on the SOH Radio Network.