Travel Day 1007 – Kathmandu, NEPAL
Since I arrived in Kathmandu, something seemed to be quite different from how it had been two years ago: all of a sudden the Chinese had arrived!
Chinese Hotels in Kathmandu, Nepal
Two years ago the largest group of foreigners in Kathmandu were clearly the Israelis. There were Israeli restaurants, signs written in Hebrew and humus could be found everywhere, but now the street scenes had changed quite a bit, displaying rather large billboards for Chinese Restaurants, Chinese Hotels or Chinese Guest Houses. In my own hotel, about 70 % of the people seemed to be Chinese all of a sudden and most of the postings in the corridors were written in Chinese characters. What had happened?
I wasn’t quite sure what happened during my two-year absence, but waking up early in the morning to the sound of loudly talking Chinese girls in a high pitch that was hurting my ears wasn’t really to my liking. Additionally instead of having the usual friendly atmosphere in my hotel where people asked each other how they were doing and what their plans are in Nepal, all of a sudden there were only groups of Chinese people who seemed to enjoy exclusively each others company while barely saying a “hello” or “ni hao” when they saw someone else in the corridor…
Chinese Restaurants in Thamel, Nepal
This was all a bit strange to me and I couldn’t quite get used to seeing all the Chinese girls on the streets with their umbrellas for sun protection and their mouth guards to protect from the dust on the streets. Kathmandu used to be a beard, boots and dirty clothes kind of backpacker destination, but now it seemed to be drifting into some sort of a Chinese Holiday Resort. It almost felt like a gradual Chinese Invasion was happening and I found myself in the middle of it…
The Invasion thought actually didn’t seem too far off as the Chinese already “liberated” Tibet by force from its independence and freedom in the 1950s. When I visited Tibet, most of the country and culture was already completely destroyed, leaving Lhasa, the once holy city and original seat of the Dalai Lama, as a modern and faceless Chinese city of glass shopping malls with much too wide, police patrolled streets in-between…
Chinese Guest Houses in Kathmandu
While the invasion of Tibet by force happened in the 1950s, today the second invasion of Tibet was taking place in form of Chinese settlers, in an attempt to bring Chinese “culture” upon the entire country of Tibet. The Chinese government created apparently enough incentives for the settlers and a convenient train line to simply flood all of Tibet with Chinese people. While under these conditions the complete destruction of Tibet and its unique culture seemed inevitable over time, it clearly left me with a foul taste in my mouth when seeing the flood of Chinese people in Nepal all of a sudden…
Obviously time would tell what was going to happen, but what if a Chinese Invasion of Nepal was already undergoing with the goal to “liberate” Nepal from its freedom, independence and culture next? I wasn’t quite sure about the answer, but I certainly didn’t like that thought…
Oh well of course, there is high possibility of that happening! Of late, Nepal has been cosying upto China, so much so as to expel Tibetan refugees living in that country for decades. Nepalis have started learning Chinese and take pride in the growth of China while their own country continues to languish among the bottom few in world economic order.
Even though Nepal is pretty much India culturally and historically, it as of late become quite China. Nepal has two big neighbors in India and China. So much of its foreign policies have been dependent on these countries. Since Sikkim voted for India in the 1970s after Indian Army defeated its ruling unpopular monarch, Nepal has been hating India. There has been this unfounded paranoia propagated by the administation, which now is deep-rooted among Nepali masses, that India has evil plans to invade Nepal. This has made Nepalis bend more towards China at the cost of Idnia, even though few decades back they were in an opposite scenario (tilting towards India fearing Chinese invasion), especially in the aftermath of 1962 Indo-China War.
India too has had its own bad policies in dealing with Nepal. Its intervention in Nepali politics, particularly, has never pleased the Nepalis. However, more than anything else, it is the Nepali nationalist sentiments being fiercely propagated that has pitted them against India and lean almost fully towards China. I definitely won’t be surprised if China annexed Nepal one day and liberated it from its freedom.
Thank you very much for your clear words Sane! Nepal really seems to have a difficult position between these giant nations, but in the past it has always greatly resisted any outside influences. Nowadays things seem to change and some Nepalis I spoke with seemed to favor fast money, even it comes from China, over long term benefits. Hopefully the Chinese people will not take full advantage of this situation…
@Sara bane .. Nepal, a poor country and probably one of those country where development started last. First Univ being started some no more than fifty yrs ago, first highway being constructed no more than fifty yrs ago.Due to weak n unstable government Nepal is still struggling. It has no industries, and not much of income. GDP is staggering low.The foreign help of any sort means uplifting people’s living standard. Chinese have constructed roads, invested in Nepal and uplifted living standard in Nepal to an extend.
We have had long disputes with india about borders. everyday in newspapers you get to see Indians invading Nepalese lands. With China we dont have those problems until now.
You are forgetting both of these country have history of forced annexation.Everyone is lobbying against China against Tibet annexation but what about Kashmir?
“Nepalese are paranoid about India annexing Nepal?” Here you are only half correct. We are also paranoid that China might also invade Nepal. But with the growing population of Indian origin Nepal to staggering One crore already , It’s only obvious why we are more defensive towards India.
Our Kings were always taught ” Nepal is yam between two huge stones one wrong move and you might be crushed in between.” This is how Nepalese policy works.
And about taking pride in China’s growth, I have a question for you ” Why not and why do u people resent in China’s growth? “
Hema, thank you for your contribution. Overall I have to say that if China’s motivation was so noble and their main concern in lifting people’s living standard, then they could as well invest in their own country as that too is quite poor in many areas. My other impression is that Nepali people are much closer related to Indian people, culturally, physically, mentally and religiously. There seem to be much closer ties between Nepal and India and for me the people look like brothers, maybe not twins, but brothers. China on the other hand looks like a stranger with money in this context…