[Tibet Final Chapter] Half-Day Tour of the Tibet Museum: Gathering Your Thoughts Through Culture, Bidding Farewell to the Plateau with Sweet Tea and Home-style Rice Bowls

Our Tibet trip has come to its final day. We have a flight at 4 PM, and the travel agency has arranged for us to depart from the hotel at 1:00 PM and head to the airport. In the half day before that, we decided to end our entire trip in the most suitable place to bring it to a close — the Tibet Museum. 🗓 Today's Itinerary Hotel breakfast → Tibet Museum → Yongbing Tea House lunch (sweet tea × rice) → Pick up luggage from hotel → Lhasa Airport → Chengdu (check into airport hotel) A leisurely morning: a relaxed pace before departure Since the Tibet Museum doesn't open until 09:30, we were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast. When we had just woken up, 3 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 spectacular than imagined Our first impression upon arrival was: The building is newer and grander than we had imagined. After entering the lobby, we saw a volunteer-guided tour underway, so we quickly caught up with the group and joined the exhibition hall tour already in progress—— "Long Song of the Snowy Land.

Snowland Epic Exhibition: Journey Through a Thousand Years of Tibetan History in One Hour This exhibition hall is centered on "The History of Tibet from Ancient Times to the Present," and the content is very substantial: Exhibition Highlights: Prehistoric cave murals and early human activity The formation of the three major tribes → Songtsen Gampo's unification → the creation of the Tibetan script The origin and development of Tibetan medicine Princess Wencheng and Princess Bhrikuti entering Tibet → Buddhism officially entering Tibet The fusion of Bön × Buddhism → the prototype of Tibetan Buddhism The Qing Dynasty period: the joint governance model of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama

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

The People Closest to the Sun" Exhibition: The Living Culture of the Tibetan People This gallery's theme focuses on Clothing × Architecture × Festivals × Traditional Crafts.

Highlights include: Regional clothing differences and characteristics The white and black color scheme of Tibetan earthen architecture The herding tents common on the plateau Traditional boats such as horse-head boats and yak-hide boats Pulu (Tibet's most iconic wool textile) The Da A'ga Dance (also seen in last night's Princess Wencheng performance) The Shoton Festival and the giant thangka unveiling at Drepung Monastery Lhasa New Year customs

Looking at the exhibits, I often think back to what the tour guide said these past few days, and it also echoes with the 《Princess Wencheng》 theater performance from the day before yesterday. Ending the trip with a museum — it's a perfect arrangement. Suggested visiting time for the Tibet Museum We stayed for about 2 hours In fact, at least 3 hours are needed to see it more thoroughly Highly worth arranging for those interested in culture, history, religion, and architecture Lunch: Yongbing Teahouse's sweet tea × rice with toppings is the best way to wrap things up After leaving the museum, we went 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 at the counter, and after asking, we found out that was their most popular jiaofan (rice with toppings, like a rice bowl). We ordered: Jiaofan (satisfyingly spicy, so good with rice) Vegetarian Tibetan noodles (for my vegetarian mom) And raised our cups of sweet tea to toast the success of this Tibet trip.

Reflections on this trip to Tibet: We arrived at just the right time I feel that—— Right now is the most suitable time for travelers to visit Tibet. Hotels generally have oxygen supply equipment Climbing Everest comes with large oxygen tanks There was absolutely no discomfort throughout the whole trip And we happened to arrive right "before the second Tibet railway opened" The number of tourists at the attractions was moderate—not crowded, not noisy Tibet's simplicity and purity can still be seen, and the beautiful scenery remains intact I'll put together the expenses in my travel guide article, hoping to encourage more people who long for Tibet to set off as soon as possible. Arriving in Chengdu: The grounded feeling of being back at low altitude Landed in Chengdu at 6 PM. Unlike Lhasa, the sky was already dark at this hour, but we no longer had to worry about "getting out of breath from walking too fast" or "getting shocked touching an elevator." Stayed at a hotel inside Chengdu 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 fast-track pass (didn't end up needing it, but it felt great) The only downside — you can only find food within the airport, so the options are limited. Tomorrow I still have half a day of free time to wander around Chengdu, and then I'll have to head back to Vietnam to begin my own little trip.