When you think of Bhutan, you may think of sacred and majestic Tibetan temples, quiet and distant primeval forests, fairy tale love between a handsome king and a commoner queen, and the wedding ...... of the century between Tony Leung and Carina LauHowever, this small country located between China** and India still has a lot of trivia that you don't know, so let's find out this time.
Bhutan's full name is the Kingdom of Bhutan, and "Bhutan" is derived from Sanskrit and means "the end of **". And "Bhutan" means "land of thunder dragons" in the local language, so its national anthem is "Kingdom of the Dragon", and there is also a dragon on the national flag.
Flag of Bhutan. China has a total of 14 land neighbors, and Bhutan is the only one that does not have diplomatic relations with China. However, China should not be sad, because Bhutan does not have diplomatic relations with all the P5 countries.
Bhutan location. Before 1974, Bhutan was isolated, with no television and internet, and no foreign visitors admitted to the country. Later, in order to increase the country's income, Bhutan opened its doors to the world for tourism in 1974. Today, the tourism industry is also one of Bhutan's most important incomes, with the number of tourists from around the world climbing from 274 in the first year to tens of thousands every year today.
In addition, Bhutan only officially introduced the Internet and television to the country in 1999, making Bhutan "the last country in the world to introduce Internet and television", but since the people began to understand the world, it has also opened a Pandora's box of high-quality talents to immigrate abroad.
Tiger's Nest Temple. In 1972, the then King of Bhutan proposed the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), emphasizing that human development must be both material and spiritual. Since then, Bhutan has valued the index more than GDP. The index includes four basic elements: equal and stable socio-economic construction, protection and promotion of cultural values, protection of the natural environment and the establishment of an efficient management system. Bhutan** has also refined these four elements into nine aspects, including psychological well-being, ecology, health, education, culture, living standards, time use, community vitality and good management, each of which has a corresponding index standard, and finally developed 72 "happiness indicators".
For a long time, Bhutan's self-measured happiness index was very high, until the country opened its doors and the people became more and more unhappy, and more and more high-quality people chose to leave the once happy country.
The current king is with happy nationals.
Although it is open to foreigners, Bhutan** does not accept independent travelers and only accepts group tours. In addition to this, Bhutan also levies a "sustainability fee" of US$200 per person per day for foreign tourists. Fortunately, since the pandemic, Bhutan has reduced the cost of sustainability to US$100 in order to revive tourism, which will be maintained until August 31, 2027.
Daxi Palace and Mochu River.
In 2004, Bhutan's former king launched an anti-smoking campaign and enacted the Tobacco Control Framework Convention (FCTC) Act, which strictly prohibits the sale of any tobacco products in the country and prohibits the public from smoking in public.
Why is Bhutan so rejecting smoking?It is said that there was a very serious fire that caused nearly 7,000 hectares of trees to burn, and also shrouded the capital Thimphu in black smoke, which took three days to dissipate. The main cause of this serious accident was an unextinguished cigarette butt. As a result, Bhutan** has ordered a nationwide ban on smoking. However, there is also accommodation under the smoking ban, that is, nationals can import cigarettes from abroad in their own name, but they are subject to 100% import tax!
In recent years, the pandemic has severely affected Bhutan's economy, so in July 2021, a new Tobacco Control Amendment Act was issued, which lifted the smoking ban and allowed people to buy and sell tobacco conditionally, but still prohibited the production and manufacture of tobacco products in the country.
Bilingual smoking cessation signs.
Bhutan's only airport, Paro Airport, is located in a deep valley at an altitude of 2,235 meters above sea level, surrounded by mountains up to 5,500 meters high.
In addition, Paro Airport has only one runway that is 1,964 meters long and less than 30 meters wide, so flights can only take off and land during the day when the view is good. What's worse is that because of the steep terrain of Paro Airport, there is no radar to guide the plane into the airport, so if you want to land successfully, you can only rely on the naked eye, experience and manual piloting of the captain. It is said that there are currently only about 25 pilots in the world who are able to fly to Bhutan.
Bhutan Paro Airport.
In fact, Bhutan had traffic lights at the earliest, but due to the small population, less than 800,000 in the country, and the roads are mainly winding mountain roads, the longest straight road in the whole territory may be the runway of Paro Airport, so the installation of traffic lights is not very effective, and then they were directly demolished.
However, in areas where there is a lot of traffic and traffic, traffic police officers will also be assigned to guide traffic. Local residents also prefer to have the police direct traffic because they find it more humane.
Traffic booths in the capital.
When you walk the streets of Bhutan, you will find that the locals are basically wearing the same clothes!This is because Bhutan** wants to preserve the traditional culture of the country, so the king ordered all people, whether they go to work or school, as long as they go out, they must wear local traditional clothing.
The local traditional costume is gender-specific. The clothing worn by men is called a gho, which is a short one-piece robe that reaches the knee in length. Women's clothing is called a kira, which is a long one-piece dress. It is said that the King of Bhutan, in order to lead by example, even wore a "gown" when he exercised.
The current king, queen and prince wear traditional clothing.
Bhutan is relatively closed and poor, with a per capita GDP of only US$3,833 in 2022, ranking 120th in the world (China US$12,700, 67th in the world).The global average is $12,600), but surprisingly, more than ninety percent of its citizens can speak English fluently, and even the little broken boy who climbs a tree in his pants blurts out English, which is very rare in Asian countries. Moreover, Bhutanese English is relatively standard, without an accent, much stronger than Indian.
In Bhutan, all classes are taught in English from primary school onwards, reflecting the country's proximity to the British and Indian royal family, and the desire to continue to reform and open up and establish ties with the outside world.
School buses are all marked in English.