While I was in Tibet I took along a small camera and filmed a short video diary of the trip.
Here it is...
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I’m James Reynolds, the BBC’s former Beijing correspondent. This blog was where I shared my thoughts on life in China during my time there.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Quite amazing! James, can you tell me if shortwave radio broadcasts of Chinese language programs available in Lhasa? I hope you and others will have opportunities to see and report about life in Lhasa in greater details soon hopefully without government minders. Thanks and keep up the good work. Do not get discouraged by negative comments from the fanatics. Keep telling us what you see.
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That's a nice video, James, I truly appreciate that you are working under that kind of altitude and conditions, things must've been tough!
Although I must say that the closing of shops and heavy security is not just in Lhasa along, it's in every city where the torch goes on the relay day. Given the huge crowds, for example in big cities like Guangzhou, there were somewhat millions of people welcoming the torch, so I think that's quite necessary...
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James:
I hope that you enjoy your time in Tibet...
I didn't see any of the reports, As usual they are good.
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James,
In your articles of Olympic torch relay, the police or army are often highlighted. This is because you and other western journalists went to China with an idea already there against China. You want leave an image to readers that police or army there would suppress innocent people.
There are street police forces with weapons in London, New York, Paris … at every moment. The presence of police is normal and their duty is same everywhere.
DO NOT LOSE YOUR PROFESSIONAL BASIS; DO NOT MAKE BIASSED REPORTS TO FOOL READERS.
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Thank James,
It's no surprise, Lhasa Tibet is occupied by alien force.
There is a pillar near the Jokhang from centuries ago, stating the tibetans will be happy in tibet and chinese will be happy in china. those days are gone but not for long, truth and justice will prevail.
Tibet for Tibetans!
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Absolutely fascinating! Thanks James for bringing us your perspective of events in China.
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A good piece. Lhasa is amazingly clean and neat. There are no shacks and bombed ruins anywhere to see.
Presence of soldiers and police personals is quite understandable and presumable as the entire TAR region has been a declared "sensitive" area since a long time and the recent riot has worsen the situation.
It was learned sometimes in the past that this condition (of being a sensitive region) would soon be removed, and tourists could travel as freely in TAR as in any other parts of China, which means that there would be not need to go for an entry permission (costing 2000 Yen) for every district.
Sadly, this is now not going to happen in the foreseeable future.
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BBC moderation?! freedom of speech?! or not!
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
No doubt, Mr Reynolds, I think you are tired.
It is chronic fatigue. (or blame it on the high altitude of Tibet, don't run, high mountain sickness is real.)
In the event you have the chance, ask any older tibetan, what was the life of a serf/ or slave was. Wasn't that true that kids of serf was sold to the rich and powerful as trade in for food ?
It is about time to have a break.
I think perhaps you should ask for a swap with the New York , African, Indonesian or South American Office.
You need a fresh environment to do the job as a professional journalist with aglobal perspective.
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the footage in the bus is reminiscent of those awful package holidays where they put you on a bus and won't let you off to look at anything that's not on the itinerary. for some reason i always associate those holidays with squashed rolls in clingfilm. did your minders hand out squashed rolls in clingfilm? the bread gets soggy because of the tomatoes.
i'm very much enjoying your blog james, i hope you're safe and in good spirits.
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Kao.. I have never image Jame is so thin..and not as handsome as his photo on the website. What you report was a kind of real true but still you seems that never stand on the opposite site. critical always in the western style? why not use the positive version to see and think about china?
anyway, you are a kind of brave as the official forced you to keep the vedio off you still had tryed..
I donot really agree what you say but i like your report cause i curiouse about your version about china..
im stand by you .
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Bias, as usual. Luckily this report is for british not chinese, otherwise I think some people will seriously considering organisation of battering BBC constant bias toward china. BBC is funded by british money not chinese. Hence chinese has no obligation to entertain you. Accept it or leave it.
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lhobdrak:
I have much more evidence to refute your foolish viewpoint. Even the so called "Tibetan Flag" which you use as a sample of independence is given by the Chinese central government. And you should not forget the Dalai Lama must be acknowledged by central government before it rule Tibet.
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GREAT JOB!!!!!. James
It is not a surprise to see some people like johnxue trying to pull your leg.
Most of the people visiting your forum love the work that you are doing right now.
Lhasa means land of god and now it has became the opposite one(The Land of Demons).I do believe that army or soldier in the west and Europe are carrying weapons but they have some sense of humane touch and will not use them on people on expressing views and held assembly. But in Lhasa this is not the case.
And I do believe that you are in China and Lhasa to cover those events and situation which we don't have access and people there want outside world to know. Most of the people (excluding some Chinese in this forum) believe that you are there in china and Lhasa with aim to help others rather than against Chinese as johnxue says.
We appreciate your great effort and please continue what you are doing right now.
We hope and love to hear from you.
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my suggestions to all guantanamo bay prisoners, terrorists or not, just say
I am an Uighur and I came to fight against US in order to against the Chinese government!
then you will be freed! nice and easy does it!
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don't silly. if tibet shall be seperate and independant, and uk shall be seperated too, scoland and ireland shall be independant from england.
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yellowminshurts:
You said "I do believe that army or soldier in the west and Europe are carrying weapons but they have some sense of humane touch and will not use them on people on expressing views and held assembly. But in Lhasa this is not the case."
Are you kidding me, tell me how many people were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who killed them?
Have you got any knowledge about earthquake in Sichuan this year? There are also a lot of Tibetan (in Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous county) were affected by the disaster, the Chinese sodiers tried their best (even with lives) to save and help them! But what was the so called Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama did? Continue to accuse China! Is he really care about the Tibetan? No! He is just dreaming to be the King of Tibet and rule Tibetan people as his slave again!
Now Tibet is open to world again, if you care about Tibet and Tibetan, you can visit it in any time, and just have a look at Tibet and talk with the civilian people their, you will find that, what they care about is the development of Tibet, not independence.
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Thanks for the video clip. It’s a pity that the torch relay in Lhasa and Xingjian had a strong staged and restricted sense than in other Chinese cities.
Based on my own experience, I don’t think Tibetans or Uighur people have less religious and political freedom than Han or other minorities. But because both Tibet and Xingjian are more controversial, anything happens to these two regions are ultra sensitive.
Most of the media seems to only emphasize the conflicts and differences between the Chinese government and people who seek independence from Chinese government. I feel a majority of the people are left in between. My limited encounters with Han and minorities in China don’t give me an impression that they hate each other or there are conquer and being conquered relationships between them.
More media coverage of different solutions of the conflicts is needed. I hope both Chinese and western media will not just paint a black-and-white picture of a complicated issue.
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Open casinos in Tibet, China like they do in many Indian Reserves in the USA. This will make the Tibetans feel free as the American Indians.
Westerners like primitive and uneducated people like those in Tibet to live as they did in the dark old days. I wonder why?
Is that what those people want or is it that they don't know any better?
And are they or will they really be happy to live their parents lives? Live a life a good with no education, no work, and without clean running water, no bathroom, no electricity, no TV, no telephone or cellphone, and no PC in their homes.
Yeah good living the old Tibetan culture, the way the west like to see them live. You mean like in the western movies.
Bet you lots of Han Chinese missed the 50's lifestyles like the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans do.
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Good reporting as usual, James.
I think your reports have been unbiased and a valuable resource for people to see what china is like.
I find the response of the chinese commenters disturbing. Why? Mainly their general inability to handle any criticism and opposite views concerning the issue of the olympics. In particular, a attack of the olympics seen as an attack on han chinese people as a whole.
The response of the chinese in china, is understandable, living in a censored, police state, having no access to unbiased information. This also applies to the chinese students, who mainly have to rely on government grants.
However, the comments and behaviour of the over-seas chinese in the west and south-east asia, has been appalling. These people have and are enjoying considerable freedom of their adopted countries, but still will not voice any views about the olympics, apart from the chinese communist party's one.
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Some (buaadallas) people are saying that Tibetan Flag is given by Chinese. This is really a laughing stroke. The flag of Tibet was reintroduced in 1912 by the 13th Dalai Lama, who united the army flags of various provinces to design the present one.
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so yellowminshurts,
tibet was a "country" in real terms then.
zawaung
please stop using han chinese, we are one united country, everyone is considered to be chinese. and i can tell you, majority is proud of the Olympic Games, that is all 56 ethnic groups!
please dont be so ignorant and so provokative!
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To yellowminshurts,
Regarding the Tibetan Flags, if you got the information from wikipedia, you might have missed the following sentence: "... the central Qing government approved the "snow lion flag" as official military flag of Tibet." So what yellowminshurts said is not entirely wrong.
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Dear # 26 Zawaung,
The South East Asian Chinese do not stand alone from the rest of the community in supporting the Olympics, it is the whole country that supports the Olympics. These individual SEA nations support the Olympics on a national basis, and not only its ethnic Chinese supporting it. It is more accurate to say the whole of ASEAN (all the 10 SEA nations grouping) supports the Beijing Olympics because it is one of the rear chances that an Asian nation is hosting this international game. All the Asian nations should support the game because this is the third time Olympics is held in Asia. This is called "Asian Solidarity".
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i wonder why the moderation team changes my message time to time
i clearly wrote
so tibet WAS NOT a "country" in real terms then
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I don't belive this at all.
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