Rich tapestry of tenacity

It wasn't love at first sip, however. Wei had her doubts.

"When we met, I felt he was a man who would be hard to get along with. But as time went by, he was cheerful and kind to me," she says.

The tea led to love-and eventually marriage. And then more tea. And rugs.

Wei and Tsetan were married in the early 2000s and lived in Nepal for a time. There, they continued the rug-making business.

Facing an economic depression in Nepal early on, however, they started thinking about returning to China, where businesses were thriving thanks to the country's reform and opening-up.

At first, Tsetan didn't think the move was a good idea. Nepal was his second home. But an economic conference in Jiangsu's capital, Nanjing, in 2004 changed his mind. And that led them to Lhasa.

With little business experience in China, and with a limited staff, the couple encountered many difficulties.

In Nepal, Tsetan handled most of the business duties, but in Lhasa, Wei took on a much greater role.

"He had difficulty communicating in Mandarin," she says, adding that he had few friends and was always thinking about returning to Nepal.

Tsetan speaks Tibetan, Nepali and English fluently, but he didn't know Mandarin. So, Wei handled most of the paperwork and coordinated business.

"I felt a little embarrassed at first," Tsetan says. "In Nepal, it's not right for a man to stay at home with a woman doing all the work."