The road to Lhasa. Photo by y It’s Tony from Flickr.

Chinese state media recently reported that Lhasa, the once quaint capital of Tibet, nestled in the in a valley high in the Himalayan mountains, has opened its first underground parking lot as a response to a boom in car ownership. The International Herald Tribune, covering the story, explains that Lhasa 400,000 residents now have 70,000 cars, “a per capita car ownership rate close to Beijing’s.”