[Tibet Final Chapter] Half-Day Tour of the Tibet Museum: Settling the Heart with Culture, Bidding Farewell to the Plateau with Sweet Tea and Home-Style Rice Bowls

Our Tibet journey has come to its final day. We have a 4 PM afternoon flight, with the travel agency arranging for us to depart from the hotel at 1:00 PM heading to the airport. For the half day before that, we decided to end our entire journey at the most perfect place for a finale—the Tibet Museum. 📅 Today's Itinerary Hotel breakfast → Tibet Museum → Yongbing Tea House lunch (sweet tea × rice dish) → Collect luggage from hotel → Lhasa Airport → Chengdu (staying at airport hotel) A leisurely morning: A relaxed pace before departure Since the Tibet Museum doesn't open until 09:30, we could enjoy a leisurely breakfast. When we woke up, 3 of our fellow tour members had already left by shuttle bus, while we gathered in the lobby at 09:15 and took a taxi to the museum. Tibet Museum: more modern and more impressive than expected Our first impression upon arrival was: the building was newer and grander than we had imagined. After entering the lobby, we saw there was a volunteer-led tour, so we quickly caught up with the group and joined the gallery tour already in progress— "A Long Song of the Snowy Land.

Snow Domain Long Song Exhibition: Walk Through a Thousand Years of Tibetan History in One Hour This exhibition hall centers on "Tibetan history from ancient times to the present," with exceptionally comprehensive content: Exhibition Highlights: Prehistoric cave murals and early human activities Formation of three major tribes → Songtsen Gampo's unification → Establishment of Tibetan script The origin and development of Tibetan medicine Princess Wencheng and Princess Chizun's arrival in Tibet → Buddhism formally entering Tibet The fusion of Bon religion and Buddhism → The emergence of Tibetan Buddhism Qing Dynasty period: The joint governance model of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama

The tour lasted about an hour, but the pace was quite fast. We had originally wanted to go back and take a closer look, but since we didn't have enough time, we'll have to save that for our next visit. Details outside the exhibition hall worth seeing Because we were rushing to catch up with the tour, we didn't get a good look at the building itself at first. It wasn't until the tour ended that we finally had a chance to appreciate it properly— The overall design is exquisite, the exhibition planning is comprehensive, and it's completely free. You can clearly sense that the government wants more people to understand Tibetan culture. 1st floor Cultural & Creative Center: A rich variety of cultural and creative products, though the prices are on the high side. 1st floor 4D theater: The film we watched, themed "Apocalypse of Disaster," was rather mediocre. We didn't get to visit the other major exhibition hall, "The Liberation of a Million Serfs," due to lack of time.

Closest to the Sun" Exhibition: The Life and Culture of the Tibetan People This exhibition hall focuses on the themes of clothing × architecture × festivals × living crafts.

Highlights include: Differences and distinctive features of clothing across regions The white and black color scheme of Tibet's mud-brick architecture The herding tents commonly seen on the plateau Traditional boats such as horse-head boats and yak-hide boats Pulu (Tibet's most iconic woolen textile) The "Dagga" dance (which also appeared in the previous night's Princess Wencheng performance) The Shoton Festival and the giant thangka unveiling at Drepung Monastery Lhasa's New Year customs

Looking at the exhibits, I often thought back to what the tour guide had told us over the past few days, and it also echoed the 'Princess Wencheng' theater show from the day before yesterday. Ending the trip with a museum visit — it was a perfect arrangement. Suggested visiting time for the Tibet Museum: We stayed for about 2 hours, but in fact you need at least 3 hours to see everything more thoroughly. It's very much worth arranging for anyone interested in culture, history, religion, or architecture. Lunch: The sweet tea and rice bowl (jiao fan) at Yongbing Teahouse made for the best finishing touch. After leaving the museum, we headed back to Yongbing Teahouse near our hotel—— Over these past few days, we've completely fallen in love with Tibetan sweet tea. The teahouse was doing brisk business, with four big pots of freshly cooked home-style dishes sitting by the counter. We asked and found out that was their most popular item—jiaofan (rice with toppings, a kind of rice bowl). We ordered: Jiaofan (satisfyingly spicy and great with rice) Vegetarian Tibetan noodles (for Mom, who's vegetarian) And we raised our cups of sweet tea in a toast, celebrating this Tibet trip.

My thoughts on this trip to Tibet: we arrived at just the right time. I feel that— Tibet right now is the most suitable era for travelers. Hotels generally have oxygen supply equipment. Climbing Everest comes equipped with large oxygen tanks. Throughout the whole trip, I didn't feel any discomfort at all. And we happened to arrive "before the second Tibet railway opened." The crowds at attractions were moderate—not packed, not noisy. Tibet's simplicity and purity can still be seen, and its beautiful scenery remains intact. I'll organize the expenses in my travel guide article, hoping to encourage more people who long to visit Tibet to set out as soon as possible. Arriving in Chengdu: The Grounded Feeling of Being Back at Sea-Level Altitude We landed in Chengdu at 6pm. Unlike Lhasa, the sky was already dark by then, but we no longer had to worry about "getting out of breath from walking too fast" or "getting shocked in the elevator." We stayed at a hotel inside Tianfu Airport: About NT$2000 a night You can walk straight to the terminal The room has a view of the tarmac Check-in came with a free fast-track pass (didn't end up using it, but it felt nice) The only downside — you can only find food inside the airport, so the choices are limited. Tomorrow I still have half a day of free time to explore Chengdu a bit, and after that I'll head back to Vietnam to start my own little trip.