Julianne's Diary Day Seven - Shigatse to Gyangtse

Before long it was back on the road, this time to visit a Tibetan incense factory. I'm not sure how they create incense in other places but here they use over fifty different traditional Tibetan medicines to create over forty different types of incense.

I watched as they placed a selection of Tibetan medicine into a machine that spun the mixture until it coiled around a barrel in one continuous strip. The strips were then removed as a perforated lined sheet and placed on a board. The product was then taken to another room, with an overpowering smell, to dry. Once the incense dries it is separated along the perforations and bundled for sale.

According to the factory manager incense can prevent the common cold and sore throats, prevent fatigue, increase the body's immune system and increase energy levels. The smell of incense can also ward off mosquitos and purify the air. Of course I bought a bundle immediately.

Next we visited a typical Tibetan neighbourhood and walked around admiring the prayer wheels, traditional architecture and unique style. It was here I received a call from Beyond Beijing's "Today show" to chat about our trip so far. As you can imagine, there was no shortage of things to talk about.

Next we headed an hour away, to Jiang zi County. Our destination was a small mill used to create barley flour.

Barley is one of the staple crops in Tibet and Jiang zi County contains the most abundant, and most famous, of these. Barley seeds from Jiang zi are transported from here to be planted and grown all over Tibet.

Three flour mills were grinding harvested barley into flour when we visited. I was informed that this barley would be sold locally. It was interesting to see the process and extremely dusty inside the mill.