Day 1: Fly to Lhasa from Chengdu
Accommodation: Yak Hotel 3 stars or the same level hotel
Taking flight into Tibet. Upon your arrival, local guide will meet you and transfer you to Lhasa. On the way, you can enjoy the heart-beating highland view along the Yarlong Tsangpo river (the longest river in Tibet). The rest time is free for relax and more oxygen.
Day 2: Lhasa sightseeing
Accommodation: Yak Hotel 3 stars or the same level hotel
Today's activities: Lhasa escorted tour Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Barkhor street This morning our tour guide will meet you at hotel .You'll wind your way up through the stunning, awe-inspiring Potala Palace,built in 637 AD by Songtsen Gampo, it was the former winter residence for the Dalai Lamas and is truly a splendor of Eastern architecture. After lunch,we will visit the Jokhang Temple, the center of Tibetan Buddhism, also built in the 7th century on the legendary pond of "Wothang." After that you have time to walk around the Bakhor street which is one of the most devotional circuit as well as crowded central market of Lhasa.During the old days it is the most famous local market but now it is changed to shopping center for tourists. We'll finish the day by taking a Kora around the Barkhor.
Day 3: Lhasa sightseeing
Accommodation: Yak Hotel 3 stars or the same level hotel
Lhasa escorted tour - Drepung Monastery ,Sera Monastery Today we will visit Drepung Monastery in the morning, once the world's largest monastery that contained more than 10,000 monks, it was the resident of the Dalai Lama prior to Potala Palace, but several destruction were taken place in history. Even so ,you still have lots of things to see by walking through numbers of narrow and twisted lane though the monks apartments is thrilling. The amazing day will ended with a visit to the Sera Monastery, it is built in the fifteenth century by the Jamchen choji Sakya Yeshi who is disciple of Tsongka pa, few different monastic colleges in Sera is the home of several hundred monks from different part of Tibet, the famous Buddhist philosophical debates among the monks are happening everyday in the afternoon except Sunday. Later today ,continue to acclimatize and alleviate jet lag in the rest of the day. Overnight in Lhasa.
Day 4: Lhasa-Gyantse
Accommodation: Shigatse Manasarovar
Today we will drive to Tsedang, located by YarlungValley, is the capital of ShannanPrefecture. It's reputed as "the cradle of Tibetan Civilization", mainly for two reasons: First, the mild weather and fertile land in Shannan gestated the great Tibet dynasty. Second, it's the birthplace of the first Tibetans who were said to be the offspring of a monkey and a demoness. So Tsedang literally means "monkey's playground". Today will visit Yumbulakang and Trundruk monastery. In the afternoon, you will arrive in Gyangtse and go for the tour of Palkhor Temple, built in the 15th century, is situated in the west of Gyantse Town with mountains enclosing form three sides of the east, west and north. Its uniqueness is that its three sects of Buddism-Shaja, Ningma and Guolu stayed harmoniously under one roof.
Day 5: Gyantse-Shigatse
Accommodation: Yak Hotel 3 star or similar
Drive about 90KM to Shigatse which is the second largest city in Tibet. It’s also the home town of Banchen Lama. In the afternoon, you will drop a visit of Tashilumpo monastery. Tashilumpo, sprawls on the slops of Mt. Niser, southwest of Shigatse. It covers an area of about 300,000 square meters. There are many valuable and rare historical articles in the monastery En route, visit Shalu monastery, which the construction was started in 1027. Its architecture is of typical combination of the Tibetan and Chinese styles with archways, carved pillars, tilled roofs and the Song and Yuan style murals.
Day 6: Shigatse-Shegar
Today we drive to Shegar and overnight here. En route visit Sakya monastery, which is divided into the south and north two parts. It is of typical Yuan Dynasty style of resembling castles. There are a lot of historical articles in the monastery, among them are found a lot of the imperial certificates, gold signets, crowns, costumes bestowed by the Yuan Dynasty emperors. It has over 10,000 volumes of Tibetan books on astronomy, medicine, calligraphy, and history. So the Sakya monastery enjoys the title ‘the second Dun Huang Cave.
Day 7: Shegar-Rongbuk Monastery-Mt. Everest
Although it's just 100km from Shegar to Everest Base Camp (5200m), it takes about 4 hours since the cracked winding roads demand much caution. But the views are stupendous on a clear day, and feature a huge sweep of the Himalaya range including peaks over 8000, Makalu, Lhotse, Everest, Gyachung and Cho Oyu. When you finally get to Base Camp, the first sight of the mighty Everest simply leaves you speechless. All the hardship you bear along the way makes sense at this while. The best moments to watch Mt. Everest's are early morning and late evening when Everest is shining like a goddess in the sunglow.
Day 8: Mt. Everest-Shegar-Lhaste
After view the sunrise of the Mt. Everest, drive about 4 hours to back Shegar. Have a luch here, then drive back to Lhaste. Tonight we will have our accommodation here. In Lhaste, there is a quite characterized Farmer’s hotel, where they can offer Tibetan dancing and singing show for free. You can have a funny night here after visiting the stunning beautiful Mt. Everest.
Day 9: Lhasate-Lhasa
Today drive back to Lhasa.
Day 10: Lhasa-Chengdu
Take flight to Chengdu, tour ends.
Dear Janet, I would like to thank you and your team for a wonderful tour setup. Begging with your professionalism, warm support and willingness to make our group tour successful one.And great thanks to Dhargye our tour guide who took care of whole group and especially myself during a night of vomiting. He and Mr. Namla- the driver were superb. I will send you some photos separately. Feel free to use them on your company's website. Am happy to give references as required.
Dear Janet,We are safe and sound home and are looking back at a very impressive trip to Tibet and Zhangye. We have between us some 3000 pictures – some quite stunning. Yesterday the four of us expressed what an unforgettable trip this has been. We want to share our appreciation for the way the trip has been organised. Like clockwork. All guides appearing at the right time and place. Everything was very well organised. It was a bit double for us when we were in Lanzhou hearing about the earthquake creating havoc in Nepal, but not leaving Tibet unaffected either. Thank you again for a trip to be remembered for a long time.
Dear Nancy,I feel embarrased that I am answering only now but another couple of weeks of travelling and the beginning of the next semester at the university made me really busy. However, me and Olaf wanted to thank you for the amazing trip we had in Tibet! The organization was simply excellent, thank you for a very quick and informative communication from your side. Many thanks go also to our guide, Danluo as well as to our driver; both of them acted very professionally and kindly towards us. It was really great that our guide was of the Tibetan origin, providing us with a unique cultural insight and first-hand information. His English language skills were just perfect and the communication with him very pleasant.