Lights! Camera! And more cameras!

Tourists toast Yushu

A warm welcome for the first international tourist group arriving at Batang Airport in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu, Qinghai Province, since a magnitude 7.1 earthquake jolted Yushu on April 14, leaving more than 2,000 people dead. The tourists included visitors from China, the United States and the Netherlands. The guests were given qingke liquor, a traditional barley wine, on their arrival yesterday. -- Shanghai Daily

 Ha! I'm, like, totally famous!

What the caption on this uber-awesome photo mysteriously neglects to mention is that this group of international "tourists" were all Xining residents, rounded up by the Qinghai Bureau of Tourism the day before and told (not asked) that we would be sent on an all-expenses paid whirlwind weekend tour of the quake-stricken Yushu prefecture. 

The good news was they were springing for a one-hour flight to the new Yushu airport, instead of the usual 16-hour bus ride from hell. (Those who have been paying attention may remember that last time this particular bus ride ended in ignominy due to the ill-advised consumption of a questionable meat stick ... but I digress.)

So they flew us to Yushu, swaddled us in white ceremonial khatas (a white silk scarf that is a traditional Tibetan greeting), carted us around in a mini-bus to every conceivable mani wall and monastery that might hold touristic interest, stuffed us full of yak meat and tsampa, and used us as walking props for innumerable photo ops with the vice premier of China, who was visiting Yushu to tout the totally altruistic helping hand that charitable China is holding out to its separate-but-totally-equal Tibetan brethren in their time of need. In keeping with the "dance, monkey, dance" theme of the weekend, the westerners were even required at one point to, yes, actually try their hand at Tibetan dancing for the pleasure of the premier.

And in between, here and there, we were allowed quick glimpses of the rubbled city. It was devastating, and disorienting (whole blocks, entire neighborhoods had disappeared, making it hard to navigate remembered streets) -- and oddly heartening to see that life went on, from markets to restaurants to barber shops, just relocated to sidewalk tents.

The idea behind this little jaunt was to "encourage" the locals with the bright, shiny prospect of a hearty tourist industry, and also to get feedback from foreigners about what the Qinghai Tourism Bureau can do to make Yushu more tourist-friendly. Although nobody was particularly interested in talking about whether a prefecture that is still struggling to meet the basic survival needs of tens of thousands of people who lost everything, who are facing three to five years of rebuilding and, more immediately, a bone-chilling winter in blue plastic tents, is really ready to turn its attention toward gussying itself up to entertain guests.

The official death toll from the Yushu earthquake is around 2,800. Locals have said it is more likely somewhere between 15,000-20,000. This is the coalition of local NGOs responding the quake that I have been working with: Yushu Earthquake Response.