Lhasa has for Ann and me always represented the ultimate exotic, remote, mystical, forbidden city — a place read about, never to be visited.  Yet, here we were, breathing deeply at 12,000 feet (as low as you can get on the Tibetan plateau), surrounded by sights and sounds that make the other parts of China seem rather mundane in comparison.

  This is a view of Beijing Street, the main drag in Lhasa, which has about 200,000 residents, a mix of Tibetans and Han Chinese who have moved there in the years since China "liberated" Tibet in 1950.