9 Days Classic Chengdu and Lhasa to Kathmandu overland Tour via Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Upon arrival in Chengdu airport or railway station, our guide will be meeting you and get you transferred to your hotel in Chengdu. The rest of the day is at leisure.

Optional: 

If there is enough time , you can enjoy a short walk at the ancient Jinli Street. Later, drive to Wenshu Monastery to have wonderful taste of the vegetarian food for dinner. Another alternative is to enjoy the cultural show - Sichuan Opera in the evenving.  (the cost is on you, based on your personal preference.)

Stay overnight in Chengdu

In the morning, drive for about half an hour to Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center, the home to giant pandas, where you will catch pandas' feeding time. They are at their most active, both Adults and Babies. There's a wealth of information and a panda museum in this 230-hectare park 10 km (6 miles) north of Chengdu. It takes about 2.5 hours to visit this site.

Then, the whole afternoon can be free for you to explore around.

In the evening, you will be transferred to Chengdu Train Station for the overnight train to Lhasa. The train departs from Chengdu North Railway Station. It takes about 1 hour to check in as the train takes about 1000 passengers. Please be sure to arrive at the train station for 1 hour or a half before the train departure. Train Z322 from Chengdu to Lhasa departs at 21:37, and your Tibet Permit will need to be checked when you check in.

Stay overnight in the train

Spend the whole day on the train to Lhasa. It is quite a long journey of taking a train from Chengdu to Lhasa. It will take 43:07 hours in the Train. On the first day you will pass through two important provincial capital cities in northwest China, Lanzhou and Xining. Xining is known as the beginning of Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Travelling along the rail line, you could see the scenery of countryside and cities in northwest China. The last stop for today is Xining, where you will arrive in about 11:54.

Stay overnight in the train

Enjoy the most beautiful scenery of Qinghai-Tibet Railway: Spectacular land of snows, boundless desert, vast grassland, and grand ice mountains, beautiful lakes that will continually appear and strongly attract your heart. You will arrive in Lhasa at about 16:00. Your tour guide will hold a board with your name to welcome you at the exit of the train station and escort you to your reserved hotel in Lhasa.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

Today's tour will first bring you to the Potala Palace which is the winter palace of the Dalai lama. It was put to use since the 7th Century by the 33rd great king of Tibet. The most valuable collections of Potala Palace are the gilded burial stupas of former Dalai Lamas and meditation Cave of the 33rd great king of Tibet.

Then after lunch, tourists head to Jokhang Temple which was founded by the 33rd great king of Tibet in the 7th century, in order to promote the Buddhist religion. Inside you can see the statue of Buddha Sakyamuni at the age of twelve, perhaps the only most venerated object in Tibetan Buddhism. Around the temple is Barkhor street where you can do kora (a religious circle of a building or mountain) with pilgrims and locals, in the meantime you can buy souvenirs.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

Visit two important monasteries in Lhasa, the Drepung and the Sera.
Drepung monastery is situated at the foothill of a mountain and was founded by Jamyang Choeje in 1416. It was once home to 10000 monks and Ganden podrang in Drepung is famous as it was the government centre and later moved to the famous Potala palace during the fifth dalai lama.

After having lunch, visit the Sera Monastery, which was founded in 1419 by Tsongkapa’s disciple Jamchen Choeje. The most attractive is its Buddhist Scriptures debating held in the courtyard mostly around 3:00 – 5:00 in the afternoon.

Stay overnight in Lhasa

Today, we have to drive from Lhasa to Gyantse. On the way, the group will pass over the Gampala pass (4790 m),and tourists will have a glimpse of Yamdrok-tso (4400m) .The Lake is surrounded by many snow-capped mountain and in the distance you have spectacular views of Holy Mount Nyenchen Khangsar, (7191m) the highest mountain near Lhasa .

We head westward along the lake and drive towards Gyantse. Gyantse was historically Tibet's third largest city (after Lhasa and Shigatse). In Gyantse, we will visit the famous Pelkor Monastery and Gyantse Kumbum.After one and a half hour's driving, we arrive in Shigatse, which is the second largest city in Tibet. In Shigatse, we’ll visit Tashilunpo Monastery, the seat of Tibet's second highest incarnation, the Panchen Lama.

Stay Overnight in Shigatse

We’ll leave Shigatse after getting your Alien’s travel permit, and then drive to Lhatse. It is a small town where you can take lunch.After that, you will drive to Shegar and if the weather is clear enough then on the way down to shegar you will view the Mt, Everest in the distance.

After 4 to 6 hours then you will arrive at Rongbuk monastery but on the way, you will pass one of the highest passes in Tibet (altitude of pang la pass is 5050m) from that’s pass you will view the whole five highest peaks in the world.  And tourists can tour Rongphu Monastery which is the highest monastery in the world (5000m) and belongs to Nyingma sect.

Stay overnight at tent at EBC or Rongbuk monastery guest house.

In the morning, you can have a full view of sunrise appearing on the top of Mt Everest(8844.43m) and the we will drive to border - Gyirong Port. Tourists will be able to view majestic Himalayas from both Tibet and Nepal’ s side.The road to Gyirong Port is not bad but the altitude and the atmosphere is rabidly changing in front of your eyes. In the afternoon, you will arrive in border - Gyirong Port, and move to Kathmandu.

Our Guide will drop you off at the border bridge.