Tibet Tours: Get to Know Tibet Within 3 Minutes
Why visiting Tibet?
TIBET, known as the Roof of The World, is a dream destination to its exotic culture, scenic highland landscapes and friendly people.
Take time to admire its rich natural attractions of the world’s highest snow capped mountains, including Mt. Everest, Joyu, Shisha Bangma, holy Mt. Kailash, Mount Everest, and many beautiful holy lakes, including Namtso Lake, Yamdrok turqoise lake, Mansarovar lake, Kokonor lake etc. Besides, lots of cultural scenic sights including the Potala Palace, Jokang temple which are listed into the world’s heritage sites, many big monasteries including Drepung, Sera, Ganden, Tashi Lhunpo etc.
Eventhough Tibet is huge and wide plateau land, you can make a visit of 10 days and include the most must visit places, flying to Lhasa from either Kathmandu Nepal or mainland China cities such as Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Xian etc or taking train from Beijing, Xining, Xian, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai etc to Lhasa, visit holy Lhasa including the Potala Palace, Jokang temple which are listed in the world’ sheritage sites, Drepung and Sera monasteries, the world’s biggest monastic shools, yamdrok lake, Gyantse, the old trade town of Tibet, Shigatse, Tashi Lhunpo monastery, the seat of the Penchen Lama who is the second highest leveled Lama of Tibet, Mt. Everest, the world’s most famous highest snow mountain.
If you would like to know Tibet more details, then even if you come to Tibet more than 20 times, you will not finish discovering the whole Tibet as Tibet is bigger than Europe and dividied as below.
TIBETUTSANG: UTSANG is the cultural heart of Tibet which occupies the upper reaches of the Bharmaputra valley, It has some of Tibet’s biggest farminglands and agricultural communities, as well as monasteries and temples of historic importance.
Lhasa , the capital city of Tibet lies on the Kyichu river. Gyangtse and Shigatse are on the Nyangchu river, Tsetang on the Yarlung river and Kongpo on the Gyamda Nyangchu river. The high land of Utsang is bordered by the great Himalayan range including Mt Everest, to the south, all the way to Nyingtri, in the forested eastern region of Tibet.
TIBET NGARI: The far west of Tibet is called Ngari and is the least populated part of Tibet. It comprises the great Changthang plateau as well as sacred Mount Kailash,(6714Meters) Rakas and Mansarovar lakes, Tholing monastery, and the ruins of the Guge Kingdom, Dungkar Peyang etc.
TIBET KHAM: KHAM, the easternmost region of Tibet is more densely populated than the central plateau. The inhabitants are different from other Tibetans, not onlyin their colorful attire and striking physiques, but also in dialect and custom. The Kham region is rugged and densely forested in places with many gorges, snowcapped mountains, numerous lakes as well as vast grasslands. Sights include Keldan Jampaling monastery in Chamdo, Derge Printing house, Ganze monastery etc.
TIBET AMDO: AMDO, the northeast of Tibet is the lowest region of Tibet in elevation, yet it is mostly plateau with huge, spacious grasslands, nomads, lakes,and snow capped mountains. The inhabitants of the Amdo region closely resemble the Khampa. Amdo is the birthplace of many famous Tibetan scholars such as Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa yellow hat sect, Gedun Choepal, a famous writer and scholar, the fourteenth Dalai lama, (Nobel peace prize winner in 1989),the late 10th Panchen Lama etc. The monasteries of Labrang Tashi Kyil, Kubum monastery etc. lie in Amdo.
General things must know before you travel to Tibet:
Since Tibet is a special autonomous region of China, it is not easy as othe provinces in mainland China to travel. Example, in other provinces of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu etc, you can just apply your China visa to the Chinese embassy in your own country in Europe or America and then book your flight and fly directly to the cities. You don’t need any other documents to travel there.
But please note that to travel to Tibet, ofcourse you must get your China visa and then you must go through an experienced, reliable travel agency based in Lhasa and need to book your trip with the travel agency. Then the travel agency will help to arrange your Tibet entry and road permits. Without Tibet entry and road permits, you can not board the flight or train so it means, you can not travel to Tibet without Tibet entry and road permits.
Why you must look for a reliable travel agent is because you can not travel in Tibet without Tibet entry and road permits. The Tibet entry and road permits will be applied by the travel agent to Tibet Tourism Bureau but the travel agent can not only sell the Tibet permits only without arranging a package trip so it means you can not also travel your own like other countries so you must book a guide and driver as well as hotels which have permission that the foreign tourists can stay.
To travel to Tibet, you must be in good shape phisically and if you are older ages and taking a trip to Mt. Everest or Mt. Kailash area, it is always recommended to see your doctor before you visit Tibet and make sure that your body fits to the high altitude.
When your body is in good shape, it is not a proble to visit Tibet and usually some of the people who might get some head ache, dizzy, even vomiting sometimes, but please do not feel nervous or worried as these are the normal symptoms of the high altitude sickness so to avoide these small usual symptoms, it is very important to drink a lot of water during the Tibet trip so you won’t get these kind of symptoms.
Since the sun light is also very strong, we recommend to bring sun glass, a hat, sun cream, a warmer jacket, warter proof shoes, extra warm pair socks, rain coat etc during the night and morning time if you travel in Kailash or Mt. Everest area or if you go for the trekking. If you just do a cultural tour of Lhasa, Gyantse, Shigatse, Tsetang, then just a hat, sun glass, sun cream are important to bring.
It is also recommended to bring some altitude medince if your country has a better one otherwise you can also get it from Tibet.
Facility of Tibet Trip:
Tibet has also been developed very much and many hotels even including ST Regis and Shangrila are operated in Lhasa, there are many 4*, 3*, Boutique hotels in Lhasa, Gyantse, Shigatse, Tsetang, Nyingtri and many pretty good guest houses on the way to Mt. Everest, and guest houses through out route to Mt. Kailash, many good English speaking guides, and good French speaking guides with Happy Tibet Tours only, a couple of German, Spanish, Japenese speaking guides, ofcourse, lots of Chinese speaking guides. The tourist transportation has also been improved a lot that nowadays, there are many new buses including coasters, Yutong buses, Toyota landcruirses, Mitsubishi 4*4 jeaps, Hyundai Mini vans, Transit vans etc.
The road condition to all over tourist destination has also improved a lot and most part of the road has been paved nowadays including the road to Mt. kailash and Mt. Everest.
There are many restaurants in the cities like Lhasa, Gyantse, Tsetang, Shigatse etc who serve continental food and ofcourse there are many restaurants who serve local Tibetan food. You can also get fresh coffeee nowadays in Lhasa, Gyantse, Shigatse, Tsetang etc.
There are many Suverniours shops in Lhasa, especially around the Bharkor streat so you can get different kinds of gifts for your freinds, or families.
