Though she is vice-chairperson of the China Prose Poem Association, Liu Xuan was tongue-tied on her first visit to Tibet in 2001. "The lofty skies and expansive fields left me dumbfounded," she sighs.

But after working on the plateau for more than five years, she is ready to publish her third volume of poems on Tibet.

Every line of her poems expresses her deep love for Tibet and its people: