LHASA, CHINA SEPTEMBER 1: (CHINA OUT) Pilgrims walk on the Potala Palace Plaza on September 1, 2006 in Lhasa of Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Chinese tourists are flooding into Tibet this summer with the recently completed Qinghai Tibet railway bringing an extra 3,000 people a day into Tibet. Critics say that it could threaten the cultural and even the physical landscape of the fragile Tibetan plateau and accelerate Lhasa’s changing face as it continues to expand into a modern Chinese city. Expensive hotels and shops have opened in the new section Lhasa while the Tibetan quarter fights to hold onto its cultural image, according to reports. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)
