Lhasa Railway Station Has Entered Its Summer Travel Peak

The intoxicating plateau scenery along Qinghai-Tibet railway and the great helpness about adjusting to the high altitude gradually makes Tibet train always be the first choice for any of tourists from home and abroad. And the best time to visit Tibet is from April to early November. Meanwhile, summer holidays for Chinese students begins at late June. Therefore, Lhasa Railway Station has entered its passenger flow peak since the beginning of July. The ticket hall is much busier than usual and many tourists are waiting in a long queue to purchase Tibet trains tickets. Some travellers are just arriving at Lhasa city, while others are about to leave. Seeing from bulletin board, tickets for getting out of Tibet have been in shortage.

Lot of Chinese students warm into Tibet during their summer vacation.

The passenger flow at Lhasa Railway Station has exceeded 15,000 on July 17th, 2016, in which 7,493 passengers left Tibet and 7,722 passengers just got to Lhasa. The average amount of passengers in and out of Tibet a day have kept around 15,000, of which over 85% are tourists and the rest are migrant workers, business people and visiting personnel, etc. Our Tibetan tour guides always wait outside the station patiently and pick up almost 50 foreign clients everyday. It has been a significant increase in tourists since the middle of July. To meet the needs of travellers, temporary passenger trains from Lhasa to Xining and Shigatse have been added.

At present, the attendance of trains in and out of Tibet has reached 98%, and some are fully-loaded. Therefore, it become harder to obtain Tibet train tickets. Just a kind reminder here, the booking period at ticket windows and agencies is 58 days, while it can be as long as 60 days for purchasing via Internet and telephone. And it’s still highly recommended to contact us to book train tickets as early as possible.

Recently we have found out that some tourists who would like to take train from Lhasa to Shigatse got to station very late, and some of them even haven’t picked up tickets till arrival, thus the whole process is very tight. If you board the train at Lhasa Railway Station, identity cards need to be checked first, and then your personal belonging and bodies. Train tickets are finally checked at the entrance. In fact, security process won’t take up a lot of time. However, when it comes to the trains with close departure time, many passengers are waiting together and the queuing time inevitably becomes much longer. Thus, we strongly suggested you get to train stain one hour before departure during Tibet tourist season.

What’s more, Lhasa Railway Station also provides the corresponding services to ensure passengers catching the train on time. As for the passengers taking trains at close time, the station have taken diversion measures and strengthened visitor guidance. When encountering clients with heavy luggage, our tourist guides are ready to help. Please be attention that travelers shouldn't carry prohibited items so as to save time in security checking. In addition to inflammable and explosive materials and controlled knives, daily necessities like nail polish, mousse, hair gel are not allowed to take on the train. Once the staff find those prohibited items, they’ll open the luggage to inspect thoroughly. It definitely results in time delay.

Lhasa Railway Station not only provide cozy waiting rooms, but also offer convenient services for travellers. Things like oxygen, wheelchair and medicine for altitude sickness have already been prepared in advance. And you can also share the oxygen tank with other tourists on our car.