Like Alexandra David-Néel before her, Élodie Bernard entered Tibet, then closed to foreigners by the Chinese authorities, clandestinely. At the age of only 24, following the unrest in Tibet in March 2008, she boarded buses and trucks and travelled through Tibet, from Amdo to Kham to Lhasa, alone and without permission, during the Beijing Olympics. Despite the terror in Tibet, she met Tibetans and Chinese who confided in her and invited her to their homes. She was eventually spotted by agents of the Public Security Bureau and deported to Beijing.