Yau Wan Kong, a 30-year-old Hongkonger who owns a cafe in Lhasa, has been welcoming back a steady stream of regular customers since his business reopened two weeks ago.

Yau, who manages the Spinn Cafeto with friends from Thailand, said he had closed up shop for 11 days due to the unrest on March 14.

The cafe, with its bright red sofa and shelves lined with Tibetan books, was a popular destination for travelers from Hong Kong and beyond. Before the unrest, it was generally open from 10 AM to midnight, but Yau shortened the hours to 2 PM until 11 PM after the city was rocked by riots.

"Most shops on our block have reopened. It's safe to do business here. I can rest easy," he said.

He said the return to normalcy had been good for his pocket book.

"Most visitors these days are locals who come around 7 PM," he said.

Yau said he was confident business would improve as tourism recovered.

He said he loves Tibet and employs a Tibetan manager and four Tibetan staff members.

He spends most of his days in the cafe, cleaning the kitchen, learning some Tibetan language from his staff or teaching them English.

"Sometimes I go to the home of some friends from Sichuan to have hotpot. They are painters who are waiting for more tourists to return to Lhasa to continue their business," Yau said.

Losang, a 28-year-old man from Nepal, runs two restaurants in Lhasa that had to be shut down due to the riots. His Tibetan beefsteak restaurant has since reopened.

"Although there are fewer visitors than before, business is recovering. I will continue to do business here," he said.

Ursula Rechbach, who is from Slovenia, has worked for more than eight years for the Lhasa-based Project for Strengthening Tibetan Traditional Medicine.

Rechbach, in her 50s, said she fell in love with the city when she visited during a sightseeing tour in 1995.

She recalled having lunch with Tibetan colleagues on March 14 when the riots started. Her colleagues accompanied her to her hotel.

"Our work has restarted and life is quiet again," she said.

She said she was busy working on a program in cooperation with the Red Cross Society of Tibet Autonomous Region to promote Tibetan medicine in the region's rural areas.

A worker at the Zhuofanlin Shop, which sells traditional handicrafts to tourists, said the shop had begun to sell art online to explore the market outside Lhasa.

The shop is run by the Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund, a US organization that helps poor Tibetans by providing training and financing.

The shop earned more than 2 million yuan (US$280,000) last year selling handicrafts, the organization said.

The staff member predicted the market would return to normal next month, when the region officially reopens to tourists.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2008)