Originally Posted by moondog
A few theories:
-they believe that the net benefit to the economy will be greater if the permit system is scrapped
-capacity to Tibet has increased by several thousand percent this year (with the advent of the train)
-permit enforcement on the train is seemingly challenging because it is often hard to tell foreigners apart from chinese
The permit thing has been a bit of a hit and miss thing for years now. Theoretically you are required to have one, and sometimes you have to show it when you check in for a flight to Lhasa. We went to Tibet last year and nobody asked for it the whole time we were there. Lots of people we met didn't have one.