China has changed its plan to re-open conflict-hit Tibet to outsiders from 1 May , informed a tourism official from this Himalayan region on Thursday 17 April.  The official who reported to AFP via phone agreed that reopening of Tibet to foreign as well as domestic visitors has been delayed because it was felt that conditions are not ripe yet.  

 

The man did not reveal his name but said that he was the director of the bureau's main office in capital Lhasa and that a new date for the same had not been set. It is learnt that tour & operator agencies too have been updated with this new decision of the Chinese government. A tour operator in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, who frequently organized Tibet tours, said that it has not been declared what the new date for reopening Tibet to tourists will be.

 

It was the US-based International Campaign for Tibet that first reported the postponement of the reopening date of Tibet. It reported that the change was because of the chaos still gripping Tibet and that it might not be reopened until after the August Beijing Olympics. The Chinese government had begun clearing Tibet of tourists once riots started in Lhasa on 14 March by Tibetans against China's 57-year rule of the remote region.