Tibet Travel Guide

 

Perhaps there is no other place on the planet like Tibet. The extremely high altitude, cool and thin air, the religiously pious atmosphere, the hospitality of the people, magnificent sceneries and tranquil places, all these things will make you feel like in another planet.

Holidays and festivals are the most important days here. Enjoying the local food and dancing with beautiful Tibetan girls are the most excellent ways to celebrate these joyful times. Buying some typical handicrafts in Barkhor Street or from other authentic vendors may add extra happiness to your visit.

Besides the white snow which caps mountains and peaks, the verdant virgin forests, the clear running rivers and tranquil lakes, there are pious pilgrims who progress toward their places of worship by prostrating themselves under the sky and along the roads, making people humble and modest. Tibet, the lost paradise under the sky, is truly a place where the spirit lives! 
 

Transportation

Railway

The Qinghai-Tibetan Railway is entirely opened to service. Pangbadi Train is the best plateau train with oxygen provided. The advantage of going Tibet by train is so obvious, because the traveler can gradually cope the altitude as the train climbs up and enjoy the unique natural sceneries that cannot be seen when travel by plane. It just takes 12 from Geermu to Lhasa. So the train travels at daylight, then you can see the source of the Yangtze River - Tuotuojiang River, Tanggula Mountain Gap at 4718 m above the sea level, Tibetan antelopes pass through the Qingshuihe River Bridge, mysterious no man’s land and so on.

Road

There are Qingzang (Qinghai-Tibetan), Dianzang, Chuanzang (Sichuan-Tibetan), Xinzang and Zhongni Highways to Tibet; landslides often block Dianzang and Chuanzang Highways at the rain season. There is no bus route on Xinzang Highway. So Zhongni Highway is the only way provided for foreigners to enter Tibet. 

The section of Geermu to Lhasa of the Qingzang highway covers a length of 1164 kms. The road condition is the best among the five highways and covers about 80% of cargos as well as the first choice for free tourists entering Tibet. It passes through the Tanggula Mountain Gap at 5231 above the sea level and it takes about 24 to 36 hours to reach Lhasa, due to the long journey so breaking tires and bad weather are often, it is not ensured to be reached the destination on time. Also the cabin environment is not very good because it often two people to take a narrow seat with length 1.7m and width 1m and having to endure the height sickness and the smell of feet, so it is strongly advised that passenger to take seat just beside the windows which gives you chance to enjoy the sceneries outside. There are few WC on the journey so that you can just to do it in the no man’s land as the locals!

Urban Traffic

Lhasa is the regional capital. The taxis in the city have no fare meters, but commonly you take 10 Yuan per trip except for remote area like Zhefeng Temple for 18 Yuan. The starting fare for rickshaw is 3Yuan per trip and minibuses and buses are the main public traffic means.

Population

Menpa, Luopa, Han Chinese, Hui, Sherpa and Deng are the folks that are living in the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the past farmers lived in small villages with barley as their main crop and nomads earned their living by herding yaks and sheep on steppes,while most Tibetans in cities had jobs as craftsmen. Nowadays some locals are changing to do modern businesses. The total population is 2,616,300 in region, of which Tibetans occupies 92.2%.

The Tibetan language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family, with dialects among different minorities.

 

Geography

Tibet (Tibet Autonomous Region, TAR for short) borders Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan internally while India, Burma, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal meet its external borders. It covers a massive 1,220,000 sq. km (470,920 sq. mi), which is about 12.8 % of the whole area of China. With an average height of more than 4,000 m above sea level, Tibet is encompassed by some of the world's highest mountains. The Himalayas to the south, the Karakoram to the west, and the Kunlun to the north are the dream lands of all adventurers and mountaineers.

The vast land is also the cradle of several great rivers such as the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Nu River (Salween), the Lancang River (Mekong), the Yarlong Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), the Indus, and the Ganges. Tibet also offers awe-inspiring scenery of beautiful lakes and valleys. Over 1,500 lakes including Heavenly Lake Namtso and the holy Lake Manasarova make Tibet the plateau with largest amount of lakes. Without irrigation and nurturance of these rivers and lakes, the surrounding lands may not flourish.

Western Tibet, Ngari, is a vast barren plateau and renowned as the Roof of Tibet. As the place where the Holy Lake (Manasarova) joins the Sacred Mountain (Mt. Kailash), Ngari is a holy pilgrimage destination of Tibetans and Hindus, as well as a popular challenge to trekkers. The ancient Shang Shung Kingdom and Guge Kingdom also exert a pull. As the climate is so inclement few people live in this region. Therefore, Ngari is also the home of wild yak, Tibetan antelope, wild donkey, and many other rare wild animals.

In Tibet, five mountains exceed the altitudes of 8,000 m (26,240 feet) and many of the mountains exceed the altitudes of 7,000 m (22,960 feet). Hence, southwestern Tibet has been a popular destination for mountaineers. Mt. Everest towers over the region. Besides, more than 40 snow capped peaks are open to mountain climbing enthusiasts. Each year, thousands of adventurers and mountaineers come to Tibet to challenge both nature and themselves. Southern Tibet also offers primeval forests, running waters, and a relatively mild climate. Yarlong Tsangpo Canyon, the largest canyon in the world, is the home of rare plants and animals, and remains unknown to anyone other than the local people.

 

 

Climate

The temperature is very low and the air is very dry between November and May next year with heavy snowfall and the roads are often closed. And this climate makes us more vulnerable to height sickness. But to visit Ali is an exception because there is no heavy rain to hit the road.

The rain season in Tibet is from June to August. It is so interesting for the rain in Lhasa that it often rains at night but it has abundant bright sunshine throughout the day. The climate is so comfortable at this time of the year, so the visitors feel they don't want to leave provided they have accustomed the high altitude !