Welcome to Tibet!
In the past traveling to Tibet might be a remote dream. The poor accessibility and appalling high altitude made many people hesitate to step on this mysterious and enchanting land. Today tourists can not only choose to take flights or cars into and out of Tibet, but a new means - train available.
Tibet Train Travel is your best personal travel guide to Tibet!
Tangula Luxury Train gets under way, a life-time experience to Tibet by rail! 
Here below is the Tibet Travel Info Kit:
| Why Tibet? | Tibet Map | Tibet Fact |
| Travel Document | Tibet History | Tibetan People |
| Tibet Climate | Altitude Sickness | Travel FAQ |
Tibet News and Stories:
Tibet will reopen to tourists 'soon'
The Tibet regional government on Friday rejected reports it has abandoned a plan to reopen the region to foreign tourists on May 1, saying it "will open soon", without giving a specific date.
In a written statement sent to China Daily, the information office of the regional government said: "The Tibet tourism bureau is doing its utmost to prepare for the reopening of all scenic spots."
Following the riots in Lhasa on March 14, in which 18 innocent civilians were killed, tourism authorities advised people not to visit the region for safety reasons.
Tourist attractions and scenic spots were closed down and travel services were suspended following the unrest.
However, on April 3, the authorities said the region would reopen to foreign and domestic tourists on May 1, a national holiday.
Train tickets to Lhasa have already sold out, a newspaper in Zhengzhou, Henan province, reported recently.
Several other tourism destinations in Tibetan-inhabited regions are also recovering from last month's riots.
Authorities in Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, said last week the region had now reopened to foreign travelers.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, April 19, 2008)
Five-star Beijing-Tibet train to serve on September, 2008
Luxury passenger train service from Beijing to the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region will be launched on Sept. 1, the operator said on Sunday.
The interior of the train will be decorated according to the standards of a five-star hotel, making it the most luxurious train in the world, said Zhu Mingrui, general manager of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corporation (QTRC).
"Such a train can only seat 96 passengers. The fare would be about 20 times the normal price and also much more than an airline ticket," he said.
Online ticket sales have begun for domestic and overseas tourists, who will enjoy the unique scenery of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, he said.
Earlier reports said that the project, approved by the Ministry of Railways in November, will be operated by a joint venture between Rail Partners, a subsidiary of the Shanghai-based investment company of TZG Partners, and the QTRC. It has attracted an investment of 52.9 million U.S. dollars from Hong Kong's Wing On Travel (Holdings) Limited.
There will be three trains, which will head from Beijing to Tibet's capital, Lhasa, every eight days. The luxury journey will take five days.
Each train will have 12 passenger cars, two dining cars and a sight-seeing car. Each passenger car will have four ten-square-meter suites featuring a double bed, a living room and bathing facilities.
"All sewage and garbage on the trains will be collected and properly disposed of; thus, they will not damage the environment of the plateau," Ben Tsen, managing director of TZG Partners, has said.
The 1,956-km Qinghai-Tibet line, running from Xi'ning, capital of northwest Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, started operation in July 2006, ending Tibet's history without railways.
(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2008)
Mt Qomolangma receives 40,000 tourists in 2007
Mount Qomolangma (Everest), the world's highest peak, recorded more than 40,200 tourists in 2007, said tourism authorities in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
Local tourism authorities attributed the tourist boom, which brought revenue of 26 million yuan (around 3.6 million U.S. dollars) to the local region, mainly to improved roads in the high-altitude region.
Tourist numbers for 2006 were not released.
An official with the Tibet Autonomous Region Tourism Bureau said that it was expected that more tourists would come to the area this year along with the ascent of the Beijing Olympic torch to Mount Qomolangma as one of the highlights during its worldwide relay.
The bureau has recently debuted new tourist routes for those who travel on foot or behind the wheel.
Mount Qomolangma, known in the west as Mount Everest, has become one of the most popular routes for backpackers and mountaineers.
The central government and Tibet's regional government have stepped up preservation of the vulnerable environment in the nature reserve of the Mount Qomolangma.
(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2008)
Tibet sees drastic increase in overseas tourists in 2007
LHASA - Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China saw a drastic increase in the number of overseas tourists in 2007, an annual growth of 136 percent, according to a local tourism official.
The plateau region received 365,000 visitors from abroad last year, 210,500 more than a year ago. They brought in 135.29 million U.S. dollars of revenue, up 122 percent year-on-year, said Wang Songping, deputy head of the tourism bureau of the regional government.
Japan replaced the United States as the largest source of overseas tourists to Tibet, and the number reached 78,000, 5.2 times that of 2006, Wang said.
Tibet hosted a record high of more than 4 million tourists both from other places of the country and overseas last year, an annual growth of 60.4 percent, statistics show.
The region's revenue from tourism surged 75.1 percent year-on-year to 4.85 billion yuan (668 million US dollars).
Tourism revenue accounted for 14.2 percent of the gross domestic product in Tibet last year, 4.6 percentage points higher than previous year.
The number of visitors to Tibet is expected to hit 5 million this year, up 25 percent from a year earlier, and tourism revenue is predicted to reach 6 billion yuan (826 million U.S. dollars), up 24 percent.
Local authorities attributed the tourism boom to overseas promotional drives, the opening of Qinghai-Tibet railway and the third civilian airport in Nyingchi.
(Source: Xinhua News)
Qinghai-Tibet railway to handle 1.6 mln passengers this year
About 1.6 million passengers are forecast to travel on the Qinghai-Tibet railway this year, its first full year of operation, the Tibet tourism authority said Lhasa on Thursday.
The figure was 4.2 times greater than the second half figure of 2006 when the railway went into operation on July 1, an official of the Tibet Autonomous Region said.
From July 2006 to June this year, a total of 1.5 million people had come to Tibet by train. Among those, more than a half were tourists, the official said.
"In the past, foreign visitors made up the majority of tourists in Tibet. But now, the number of domestic tourists has surpassed that of foreigners."
This year, Tibet is expected to receive a record-high 4.02 million tourists, helping the region's tourism revenues to hit an estimated 4.8 billion yuan (651.3 million U.S. dollars).
Tourism is Tibet's main industry. The region received 2.5 million tourists last year, earning 2.77 billion yuan in total tourism revenue. This accounted for 9.6 percent of the region's gross domestic product.
The 1,956-kilometer railway, built at cost of 33 billion yuan, was the first railway to connect Tibet with the outside world. It now transports about 75 percent of the goods between Tibet and other parts of the country.
Source: http://en.tibet.cn By An Lu
Safe winter operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway guaranteed
Recently "Maintenance & Arrangement Methods on the Rail Snow Melting System from Golmud to Lhasa along Qinghai-Tibet Railway" was issued by Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company to further improve the safety of the winter transportation.
The railway snow melting system is the auxiliary equipment from Golmud to Lhasa along Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which can guarantee the railway condition safe in the rainy and snowy days.
As reported, 32 railway stations from Golumd to Lhasa are equipped with the railway snow melting system. Each of the equipment is connected with the work stations and control centers in Lhasa, Golumd and Xining for remote sensing supervision.
The railway snow melting system is under well running since the opening of the landmark Qinghai-Tibet Railway on July 1st, 2006.
(Source: http://en.tibet.cn)
Tibetans Celebrate Shoton Festival
On Sunday, tens of thousands of Tibetans and other visitors flocked to the Zhebung Monastery in the western suburbs of Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, to celebrate the opening of the annual Shoton (Yogurt Banquet) Festival.
A 35-by-30-meter Thangka painting bearing the image of Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism, was unveiled at 8 AM on the hillside next to the monastery amid acclamations from spectators, marking the beginning of the traditional festival that is believed to originate in the 11th century.
Zhang Ran, a 20-year-old Chinese student who studies in Japan, said: "I've been standing here on the hillside for more than six hours, just to see the huge traditional Thangka painting. It is exhausting, but it is totally worth it. I have never seen anything this fascinating, even though I am not a Buddhist."
Shoton, or Xodoin, means yogurt banquet in the Tibetan language, and the Shoton Festival, originally a religious activity for pilgrims to serve yogurt to monks and nuns who finished their summer retreat, had gradually become a theatrical event by mid-17th century.
Also known as the Tibetan Opera Festival, it is held each year from the end of the sixth month to the middle of the seventh month on the Tibetan calendar.
The Shoton Festival was inscribed on China's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in May last year.
Citizens in Lhasa will enjoy a week-long holiday for the festival this year, which will also feature Tibetan opera performances, yak races, and other activities including an auto and real estate exhibition, said Zhou Junjie, deputy secretary-general of the city government.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2007)
Lofty Line to Lhasa
The fact that Tibet is known as the "Western Treasure House (Xizang) in Mandarin is no misnomer. The staggering natural beauty, vibrant Buddhist culture and quietly proud population of this elevated region make it a personal favorite when it comes to travel destinations. My latest journey from Beijing to Tibet would be a little different, however. Completed in mid-2006, the highly-vaunted Qinghai-Tibet Railway, connecting the forlorn outpost of Golmud with the sacred Tibetan capital, Lhasa, now offers non-fliers a new overland route that is hard to resist. Having experienced many a punishing train journey already, I was keen to endure this record-breaking feat of engineering for myself. - a travelogue written by Daniel Allen
Qinghai-Tibet Train Provides Translation Service
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company has hired 16 Tibetan and English translators as many passengers come from Tibet and abroad, according to the Ministry of Railways.
Every service has been equipped with one Tibetan and one English translator to create an "obstacle-free" communication environment for passengers, said the ministry.
The translators would be paid around 3,000 yuan (US$390) a month, said an official with the company.
The ministry said the company would also employ language teachers to train all the attendants so that they are able to converse in both languages.
In addition, the company has established "green channels" for VIP passengers and set up sight-seeing platforms at some stations.
This year Tibet expects to host three million tourists and earn 3.4 billion yuan in tourism revenue, said Jin Shixun, director of the Development and Reform Commission of the Tibet autonomous regional government.
In the first five months alone, Tibet received a record 672,000 tourists, up 82 percent from the same period last year.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the first to link Tibet to the rest of China, runs between Xining of Qinghai province and Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. It was opened on July 1 last year.
(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2007)
First Passenger Flight to Link Kunming, Nyingchi
China will open its first passenger flight between Kunming and the Tibet Autonomous Region's Nyingchi this summer, China Eastern Airlines announced on Saturday.
The Shanghai-based carrier said it would announce the date of the first flight and the number of flights per week after negotiating with the two airports.
The flying time will be is one hour and 50 minutes from Kunming, capital of southwest Yunnan province, to Nyingchi, 400 kilometers from Lhasa.
Nyingchi Airport, the third civil airport in Tibet, is one of the world's most difficult airports from which to take off and land due to unique geographical features and volatile climate change.
China Eastern Airlines Yunnan Branch has operated the first trial flight of a Boeing 737-700 from Kunming to Nyingchi.
(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2007)
Tibet: A Land of Yaks and Yore
(CNN) -- The heavy aroma of yak butter candles mingles with the sweet smoke of burning juniper leaves billowing out of pot-bellied, stone sangkang (incense burners). Chanting Tibetans push and shove their way around the holy pilgrimage circuit of Lhasa's Barkhor Square. More >>
During National Day Holiday of 2006, trains from Shanghai and Guangzhou headed for Lhasa
China on Tuesday (October 3) put a new passenger train into service to Lhasa from Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong Province. The train ride takes 57 hours and 21 minutes to cover the 4,980-kilometer distance, which might be the longest rail journey in this country.
The express train left Guangzhou at 10:29 a.m. on Monday and is expected to arrive at Lhasa at 19:50 p.m. on Thursday.
From October 5, there will be one express train from Lhasa to Guangzhou every other day. The train will leave Lhasa at 08:32 a.m. and arrives in Guangzhou at 07:37 p.m. the third day. China opened the 4,373-km Shanghai-Lhasa passenger train service on Sunday (October 1), arriving at 19:50 p.m. on Oct. 3.
By Friday, the 1,956-km Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest railway, carried 380,500 passengers to Lhasa since entering service on July 1, said Sun Yongfu, director of construction for the plateau railway.
Let's ride the sky train into or out of Tibet!
On July 1, 2006, China's President Hu Jintao was at newly renovated Golmud Train Station cutting the red ribbon for the launch of the first train to Lhasa and declared another magnificent feat made by the Chinese people after completion of the Three Gorge Dam.
The first train coded as "Qing 1"gradually left the station at 11:05 am on Saturday and took its maiden trip across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It finally arrived at Lhasa's brand-new Train Station at 00:31 on July 2, proclaiming the end of no train whistling on the roof of the world.
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