To my surprise, I found at least 20 empty taxis at the intersection, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. Despite the early spring buds, Lhasa's air is still extremely dry in March, as usual. Everyone knows the tourist rush won't come until next month but the drivers, mostly migrants from Sichuan and Henan provinces, take turns working days and nights.

I also noticed most stores were run by Han people but most of the staff were Tibetans.

"Our boss is from Sichuan and all the employees are from Tibet," said Pempa Tsering, a cashier at a bakery that reopened Thursday, after the week-long Tibet new year holiday.

Pempa Tsering himself is from a rural county on the outskirts of Lhasa. He said the average monthly income at the store is about 2,000 yuan. "It's a pretty handsome amount, but the prices here are very high."

The railway to Lhasa that opened nearly three years ago brought a wider range of food to the markets but did little to lower prices. Produce and sweets are almost always 50 percent higher than in the inland provinces.

A 350-gram pack of Yili brand fruit yogurt costs nearly three times as much as in Beijing.

The Han influx, however, has created more jobs in Lhasa, particularly in the service sector. Many Tibetans have joined the shoe polishers from Sichuan Province to make 2 yuan for cleaning a pair of shoes. Others offer pedicab rides across the city.

With a two-hour time difference from Beijing, office workers begin working at 10 a.m. and finish at 6 p.m., with a two-hour break for lunch and a nap. Although Tibet, like all of China, runs on Beijing time, the workday starts and ends later to reflect the actual different time zones.

They, however, feel the pressure of faster pace and fiercer competition that Han people have brought in many sectors. Still, many Tibetans are interested, or at least curious, in what the migrant population brings to the plateau.

When truckloads of People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers took to Lhasa's streets Thursday morning to provide free health and repair services and haircuts -- an effort to emulate the late Chairman Mao's model soldier Lei Feng -- many pilgrims stopped to have their blood pressure measured or get some pills for minor ailments.

Most Chinese people aged over 30, Tibetans included, are familiar with Lei Feng's story. March 5 was designated by Mao for the nation to learn from Lei, a soldier who saved every cent and spent all his spare time helping the needy. He died in an accident at 22.

In a friendly gesture to get closer to the public, PLA soldiers and police have put up posters and set up service stands in downtown Lhasa to explain they are here to help. "The relationship between the army and the people is like that between fish and water," many posters read.