BEIJING DIARY: A taste of Tibet with Chinese characteristics

By KELVIN CHAN
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — People attending the Beijing Winter Olympics can’t visit Tibet because they’re in China’s “closed loop” system for foreign visitors. But some visitors, including part of the Associated Press’ Olympics team, are getting a taste of the region because they’ve been assigned to the Tibet Hotel. The hotel has been built and outfitted to evoke the remote region on China’s western edge. Rights groups accuse China of political and religious repression in the region, which Beijing denies. The hotel seems to be a standard and fairly innocuous showcase of local culture. But there were signs of the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on history.