Summary itinerary

D1: by air or trains from mainland into lhasa or from nepal side( katmandu.)
D2: visiting famous potala, bhakor and jokhang
D3:redicovering drepung monastery and sera monastery.
D4:serving a free day to client for more understanding on lhasa
D5:moving towards shigatse city
D6:shigatse to sang-sang
D7:Sang-sang to Tsochen
D8:Tsochen to Gertse
D9:Gertse to Gegye
D10:Gegye to Sanggye khabab
D11:Ali to zanda
D12:zanda to darchen
D13, D14 and D15are on the trekking
D16:darchen to baryang
D17baryang to saga
D18:saga to lhatse
D19:lhatse to lhasa

Detail itinerary
         
D1: our agency tour guide will pick you up from lhasa gongkar airport or from lhasa train station to yours reserved hotel.you can relax in the hotel and can refer to books that you have bring along with you for yours trip. If you have any doubt or question, you can ask to your tour guide to fix your next day’s trip.

D2: morning section to visit the famous potala palace, which is situated on the marpori(red hill) and is abode of boddhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. The potala palace is divided into two parts, white and red palace is about 119m tall.the red palace had 13 storeys, golden tomb from fifth to thirteenth dalai lama. Songtsen gonpo’s meditation cave is situated in white palace is oldest chamber in the history of whole potala palace. Afternoon section visiting to Johkang temple, built during songtsen gonpo’s reign by princess wencheng of tang dynasty. The most interesting thing in jokhang is the sacred goat head in the Jampa chapel which is believe to ‘self-arisen’ ie not man made.
      The inner circuit is also situated inside the temple and is lined with prayer-wheel and murals outlined in gold on red background, which depict the thousand buddhas, interspersed with stupas and relief-images.
Then continued to explore the famous barkhore street which is like core of the lhasa city and you can seen different attracting things there. The famous thangkas and culturally important things like dorjee(thunderbolt), drums, chupa(tibetan dress) are all available in barkhor street there.

D3: drepung monastery is situated at the foothill of a mountain and was founded by Jamyang Choeje in 1416. the monastery is divided into two different colleges that is drepung loselling and drepung gomang college. The Ganden podrang is famous among them as it is the government centre during fifth dalai lama and later moved to the famous potala palace during fifth dalai lama. By the time you can also the Nechung monastery located 1km southeast of Drepung and is the abode of the protector deity pehar and the seat of the state Oracle of Tibet. the two main protector inside the monastery is that of Nechung choegyal and Palden lhamo.
In the afternoon exploring the Sera monastery which was founded in 1419 by Tsongkapa’s disciple Jamchen Choeje. The whole monastery is divided into two colleges and there are Sera ‘jhe’ and Sera ‘may’ respectively. Among them “Tsokhang chenmo” where the monks from all the colleges assemble and pray together there.you can also see monks debaiting there in the courtyard at around 6-7:30 in the afternoon section.Note: if you don’t feel tired, you can try for the khora(circumambling around) Drepung and sera monastery.Your tour guide and driver will drop you back to your hotel.

D4: one day is serving free for you for more inderstanding on lhasa city. There are so many interesting things that you shouldnot miss around lhasa city. Some of them are Lingkhor - is the most interesting section of the city’s main pilgrimage circuit.It’s best walked in the morning, you’ll be joined by hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims. The hardest part of this walk is finding the starting point. The starting point is the completion point of this walk. In one complete lingkhor,you have made round to three most important “JOWOE”,the three precious statues ie Sakyamuni in jokhang, Mugyur dorjee in Ramoche and thukje chemo in Potala palace.
Barkhor:the circular pilgrim route around Jokhang temple is called barkhor and later flourished, forming the embryo of the city. The barkhor market itself is the most active in all tibet,and it is possible to purchase traditional Tibetan artefacts, religious implements, antiques,mordern goods,books,music,and tradition tibetan clothes etc.
Tsekhor: in tibetan language, the potala palace is also reffered to as “tse” means supermacy. That's why the circulation around the potala is termed as tsekhor. Tibetans always circumambultes by holding a Mani prayer wheel in right hand and rossary in their left hand.
Chakpori: it is believe that a medical institution was once stood their on the chakpori or iron hill. The red hill and chakpo hill are seperated by three stupas in between. It is believe that by joining these two hills forms a big dragon which cause a big destruction in the lhasa city.
Lhasa Nadam: the 70 percentage of oxygen around lhasa city is produced from nadam, extending from drepung monastery to sera horse racing centre. You can observe it very carefully from the backside of the potala palace. 
Tibetan tea houses: if you have sufficient time in the morning, you can check out the crowded Tibetans drinking sweet tea or butter tea in restaurant like Ghamchung or Zhutral tea house.
Butter tea: made from Dri(female yak) butter mixed with salt, soda,tea leaves and hot water churned up in a wooden tube. When mixed with tsampa(barley) becomes staple meal of most tibetans and you may well be offered it at monasteries, people’s houses and even while waiting for a bus by the side of the road.

D5: actually it is about four hours drive way but now a days it is not possible to reach shigatse in four hours through land cruiser because there are so many traffic checking points on the way to shigatse to control the over speed on high way. So it is better to set off early in the morning and also you can visit tashi lhunpo monastery more freely. It is plan to rest a night there in shigatse.

D6: the day’s journey could be little tough as is about eight hours driving. There is a check-point about 6km after leaving lhatse and from this point the road is divided into two parts as one towards the Ali prefecture and one towards the mount  Everest and Dham (border between Tibet and nepal.) But you are moving towards north west side of Lhatse onto a dirty rough road where the kilometer marker at the start of this route is 2141. through this journey, you can discover many scattered tibetan villages on the sides of road and also you can meet up with beautiful lakes, canyons and rivers through the way to sang-sang. The photogenic Langtso(ox lake) is along the way with one hours from lhatse and then the road will climbs up to the Ngamring-la which is 4500m above the sea level. The road passes through small town of Kaga, next to Ngamring-tso where food and accommodation is available. After passing about ten kilometers from Kaga, you will be behind the agricultural fields. Your day’s final destination is sang-sang which is about 122 km from lhatse with a couples of very basic restaurants,truck-stop guest houses. Spend a night there in Sang-sang.

D7: the first town after leaving sang-sang is raka 4900m with kilometer marker 1912is about 6km before the junction of the northern and southern routes. At kilometer mark 179there is a major check-point where your passport and permit will be checked. Then the town of Tochen is just ahead across the plain.

D8: on the way , you can explore the nature of jangthang and the most important Tibetan sources of salt. The famous passes like Norgwa-la(wild yak head pass),with nearly 5000m and 94km from Tsochen. The road runs right beside a beautiful,snowcapped mountain range runninh north to south. Then its about 15km way to Dungtso with its purple mountain backdrop and salt marsh foreground that looks like iceberg on the sea from a distance. Then its about two hours driving to Gertse.

D9: as Gertse is the biggest town along the northern route before Ali and its about seven-eight hours drive from Gertse to Gegye. On the way you can see many different salted lakes like tarab-tso or Tsaka with a small salt- minning community and the centre of the town has a guest house. Then you will reach to Pongpa, is a dismal wool-trading centre for the nomads of the region then the road heads north-west from Pongpa with very beautiful sceneries with different colour of grasses with honey. Camel and mustard. Then Gegye is about 105km from Pongpa.

D10: Ali or Sangye kapab in tibetan is just 112km from Gegye. On the way, you will cross the infant indus river and then soon enters a marshland with an abundance of birdlife, including golden ducks and large black-necked cranes. Then next destination is Ali capital of Ali prefecture and nothing much to see but is a good place to clean up.

D11: the road is really tough going and takes about eight hours to zanda. On the way you can see the views of Indian himalaya. Then gradually drops down to the Sutlej valley where you can see amazing eroded cliffface with ancient ruins of monastery, castle or the high pillars there and finally reach  zanda.

D12: exploring the famous Gegu kingdom and the toling monastery in the morning section. Toling monastery was founded by Rinchen Sangpo in the 10th century and was once ngari’s most important monasticcomplex. Also you can explore the Tsaparang.

D13: The entry fee for mount kailash is 80Y per person and here you need to register your passsports,permit and the itinerary at the police station on west side of darchen. Darchen is the starting and completion point for the general circuit of the sacred mountain. It is wise to spend at least a day acclimatising and making final preperations.
D14,D15, D16 are on the circulation way.
D17: back to baryang
D18: back to saga
D19: back to lhatse
D20: back to lhasa