China bans foreign tourists from Tibet

BEIJING — China has banned foreign tourists from traveling to Tibet ahead of a parade in the capital to mark 60 years of Communist rule, an official said Tuesday, amid stepped-up security across the country to ensure nothing mars the celebrations.

Tan Lin, an official with the business administration office at the Tourism Bureau of Tibet, said foreign tourists would be banned from Tuesday onwards, but those who have already arrived would be allowed to stay.

China has tightened security in recent weeks ahead of the Oct. 1 holiday that will see a military parade through the heart of Beijing, a speech by President Hu Jintao and a huge fireworks display.

Sales of knives have been banned at some stores including large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour after two separate knife attacks near Tiananmen Square last week, according to store officials and state media.

A female staffer who gave her last name Lazhen at the sales department of the International Grand Hotel in Lhasa — 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) from Beijing — said the ban was in effect until Oct. 8.

No foreigners came to her hotel on Monday and business has now down 20 to 30 percent, she said.

Fu Jun, an official with the publicity department of the Communist Party in Tibet, said he still had not heard about the ban.

China requires foreigners to obtain special permission to visit Tibet and routinely bars them from all Tibetan minority areas of the country during sensitive periods.

The region has been periodically off-limits since riots in March 2008 saw Tibetans protesting Beijing’s rule attack Chinese migrants and shops, and torch much of Lhasa’s commercial district. Chinese officials say 22 people died, but Tibetans say many times more were killed. The violence in Lhasa and protests in Tibetan communities across western China were the most sustained unrest since the late 1980s.

Security was intensified again in the weeks leading up to the Beijing Olympics last year and then again this past February and March because of anniversaries of the violence and the Dalai Lama’s flight to exile.

China says Tibet has historically been a part of its territory since the mid-13th century and the Communist Party has governed the Himalayan region since Communist troops arrived there in 1951. Many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for most of their history and say Chinese rule and economic exploitation are eroding their traditional Buddhist culture.