Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet: Travel Day

We started this morning at 1AM as our freshly tailored clothes arrived, or at least partially arrived. We were surprised to hear that the remainder of our order would be at the hotel at 8AM, an hour after we were to depart for Tibet. We got a few hours sleep and arose at 5AM to track down the remaining garments: with no luck. They finally arrived at 6:15AM, 15 minutes after our bags were to be packed and sent ahead of us. With some help, we had them forwarded to Xi’an so we would stay under our weight limit for our trip to Lhasa. Lhasa, Tibet is at nearly 12,000 ft: it is dry and clear and comfortably warm for over 2 miles above sea level. In one flight we went from near sea level to 12,000 feet. Lhasa is near neighboring Bhutan and we flew near Mt. Everest on the way from Beijing.
Upon arrival to the Brahmaputra Gran Hotel, we were greeted with the traditional white scarf and local music and a dancing Yak. The hotel is like a museum, Tibetan artifacts are in all the halls and rooms and tell of the history of these people. The hotel rooms actually have oxygen bottles by the side of the beds where you normally would find water.
Factoid: In Lhasa it takes three breaths to get the same oxygen you would get in two in Beijing. There is about 68% of the oxygen that you would find at sea level.