Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet and the seat of the Panchen Lama's monastery, is a working provincial town rather than a showpiece, and the evenings are the best time to see it. The city sits at the junction of the roads to Lhasa, to the Nepal border and to the western plateau, so it has always had travellers passing through, and the food and drink on offer reflect that mixture rather than a single tradition.
The old town in the evening
The lanes below and around the monastery are the focus. In the late afternoon the pilgrims who have walked the circuit all day stop to eat, and the small restaurants fill up: Tibetan kitchens serving momos, thukpa and yak dishes; Sichuanese places running the full chilli repertoire; Hui noodle and kebab shops; and a scattering of places serving simple Western food to tour groups. There are sweet tea houses that stay busy late into the evening, with long wooden tables and endless refills, and a handful of small bars where the customers are local, the beer is Chinese and the music is Tibetan pop or, more often, whatever is on the television.
The city's centre
Away from the monastery, Shigatse's modern core has a broad square, a pedestrian street of shops, and restaurants on several floors of the new commercial buildings, including hotpot, barbecue and noodle chains found across China. In the evening the square fills with people walking, children playing and music from shops, and it is a pleasant place to sit on a bench and watch a Tibetan provincial city doing ordinary things - which is worth as much as any monument if you have come to see how people actually live on the plateau.
Practical notes
Shigatse is about five hours from Lhasa by road and now connected by rail, and most visitors stay one or two nights on the way west. The evenings are cold at any time of year and very cold in winter, so bring a jacket even in summer. Restaurants generally close by ten or eleven, and the streets empty quickly after that. Altitude here is slightly higher than Lhasa, so take the first evening gently; the food is good, but the combination of a heavy meal, alcohol and altitude is the usual cause of a bad night on the plateau.
