The Train to Tibet

The Chinese government just recently completed one of the longest train lines in the entire world. From the brief article I read, it seems as though the train line goes pretty much all the way across China and brings access to certain parts of the country that are rarely, if ever, seen by the world outside China.

One of these places is the city of Lhasa. Lhasa has been extremely isolated, basically a thing of legend, for most of it's existence. It's altitude and surrounding turain has kept railroads from going there before. Apparently, that has all changed. The connection to Lhasa is being hailed by the Chinese government as beneficial to both the city natives and the outside world. Funny how the Chinese are now advertising tourism to this city of heralded culture. If by heralded you mean, lit on fire by Chinese government officials-but that's a different post. Essentially, what it boils down to is that us American's, Europeans, tourists from all over the world now have an easy way to get to the city that has been the subject of so many films and books, but never really explored much by Westerners. Additionally, the people of Lhasa will have a steady and reliable source of income from said tourism.

When I first heard this, I thought it was really, really cool. I looked it up online to see just how you could pull off such a trip, how much it would cost and all that. As I thought about it though, it kind of started to make me sad. The isolated world is disappearing. People can now visit these remote locations. Our mysterious places are no longer mysterious, they're well documented on the internet. Hell, if you're lucky you can probably find a live webcam shot of the place you're interested in right now. Even places that aren't even places at all-jungles, Antartica, deserted islands-places with no real attractions-even these places are being revealed. Eco tourism is praised as a motivating factor in convincing countries to preserve their rainforests. I understand that they are helping save these environments, but they're destroying some of the last bit of mystery left on this earth.

There's no such thing as an explorer anymore. Everything's been explored, the map has been filled in, you can get a satellite image of anywhere you want. Instead of exploring the earth, we explore via our intellect. We try new things in business, we make career changes, we explore other people via our relationships. We explore the boundaries of literature and film. We explore musically. Some people explore sexually. Every once in a while we do something really crazy, like take up-or better yet, start- a new religion, because we're one of those people whose exploration needs are only satisfied with experimenting spiritually. We do all sorts of things to explore. I think the problem for me though, is that none of this exploration is of anything really tangible. Us humans, we have this need, or desire, or instinct, or addiction for new things. We're constantly pushing the envelope. Problem is, there's nothing left that no one has seen. That kind of depresses me. It's almost like I want to leave right now to go find what little mystery is left in the world. Then again, loan officers would probably hunt me to the ends of the earth. Also, if this is what makes me "depressed," than life is going pretty well right now. Maybe I'll stick it out here in Chicago. Besides, I've heard the south side is pretty fucking mysterious.

"You are a waterfall, waiting inside a well,
You are a wrecking ball, before the building fell,
And very lightning rod, has got to watch the storm cloud come."
-Sunset Rubdown Us Ones In Between