A-Qia plays a drum while performing with Yange Drolma. [Photo/ Tibet.cn]

A Beijing dream or falling from dream?

It was a hot summer in 2005 and A-Qia, then 18, finally set his foot in Beijing after a three-day journey by train from his hometown. He took all the money he had with him - around 5,000 yuan, and came for a dancing class in the Beijing Dance Academy. A friend had filled out his application. Despite disapproval from his parents and friends, he made up his mind to realize his dream of becoming an artist in Beijing.

"Beijing is so large and it is so expensive to take a taxi," he said of his first impressions of the capital. Living in a cosmopolitan city for the first time made him feel lost.

However, life was full of surprises and sometimes, unpleasant ones. It was on the registration day that A-Qia realized that the tuition fee was 8,000 yuan per month, a price that was impossible for him to afford.

"I had to give up the class. There was no way out", A-Qia said.

Ashamed to go back home with nothing achieved, he decided to stay in Beijing. The money he brought soon ran out. To make a living, he started to work part-time as an assistant cook in a restaurant and rented a cheap basement as his temporary home.

Everything happened so suddenly and unexpectedly, his dream turned into an illusion for the young Tibetan man.