1. The white stupa is there to join up the Potala Palace's dragon vein, which the road cut through

A white stupa by the road under evening clouds; a line hung with small bells runs up from its golden spire, another small white stupa stands on the hill to the left, and a few scooters ride along the road

2. The white walls are made by splashing on coat after coat of whitewash, which contains milk and white sugar; built up layer on layer over the years, some parts have even formed something like stalactites

Looking up at a tall white wall: layer on layer of whitewash has run and set into stalactite-like drips, with dark red bands and a row of windows above

3. The blue, white, red, green and yellow of the prayer flags stand for sky, cloud, fire, water and earth

Rows of blue, white, red, green and yellow prayer flags strung out beside a painted pillar, under a blue sky with white clouds

4. Prayer wheels, seen everywhere in Lhasa, and the people turning them

A row of golden prayer wheels along a red-and-white wall below a grassy slope with palace buildings above; an elderly woman in a hat is turning them

5. Tibetan rugs and ornaments are all very beautiful, the fruit of a thousand years of accumulated culture

Tibetan rugs hanging in a shop: one woven with the Potala Palace, white stupas, dragons and a snow lion, another below it with a snow mountain

6. Pilgrims and a puppy outside the Jokhang Temple

On the flagstones, a pilgrim leans forward on her mat and holds a cup out to a puppy, with many people sitting behind her

7. Ordinary buildings in Lhasa may not be taller than the Potala; solar panels glint on the rooftops, and prayer flags and national flags dance together

Lhasa seen from above: the Potala Palace on its hill in the distance, and in front, low flat-roofed buildings lined with solar panels and flying prayer flags and Chinese national flags

8. Mobile payment in Tibet is more widespread than I had imagined. The aunties at the roadside who trade with locals and speak no Chinese, and many of the earth toilets along the national highways, all take WeChat Pay or Alipay. Behind this is infrastructure that many people poured their hearts into building

Two WeChat Pay receipts on a phone, for ¥15.00 and ¥3.00; one payee's name is in Tibetan and Chinese, the other only in Tibetan

9. Only after coming to Lhasa did I learn that the city is also called Little Sichuan. There are lots of people from Sichuan, and besides Tibetan and Mandarin, Sichuanese is widely spoken, so wanting to find a place that serves Mianyang rice noodles here is not such an unreasonable request

The front of a bar in Lhasa called 贰麻酒馆, "ermapub", with two cars parked outside