We were up early in Chengdu for an early morning flight to Lhasa, Tibet. Most of our flight appeared to be flying down the ridge of the Himalaya Mountains. It was a clear day and the mountains were almost all snow-covered with clouds gathered at their base. Our flight was two hours long and one of the great flights of my life. Judging by the sharp peaks and razor ridges, I would have to guess that the Himalayas are relatively new mountains. I’ve included two photos below.

We landed at the airport and had to pass through several crowds of people but when I reached our bus, I realized that my watch had been stolen. Welcome to Tibet.

Some people in our small group felt light headed, dizzy, and had headaches from shortly after we landed. Lhasa’s elevation is almost 12,000 feet. It is one of the highest cities in the world. For my part, I felt fine.

It was about an hour drive from the airport into the city. The drive was through a big flat valley with the wide meandering Kyi-chu River surrounded by steep, barren looking mountains. We passed several monasteries that were a short ways up the mountains. We also passed some small housing complexes. Farming was being done for many miles of our drive on nice, flat farmland. Wheat was the main crop growing. Thousands of trees have been planted along the sides of the road. There were very few trees, let alone mature trees, to be seen otherwise. The farmland was starting to be worked and I saw more tractors than in all our time in China. I also saw some rototillers being used for major farming operations. You can see a few photos taken during our drive from the airport to the city of Lhasa.