Lhasa
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Southwest China (西南) » Tibet (西藏) » Lhasa (拉萨)
[edit] Overview
Lhasa is known as the city of the sun. It's situated on a plateau over 3,658 meters above the sea level surrounded by towering mountains. It has a population of 622,316 (as of 2007) and covers an area of 29,518 sq km.
[edit] History
[edit] Video
| Dreams of Tibet |
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| Tibetan Song by Phuntsok Dolma |
[edit] Weather
| Weather averages for Lhasa | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| Avg high °C (°F) | 7 (45) | 9 (48) | 13 (55) | 16 (61) | 20 (68) | 23 (73) | 22 (72) | 21 (70) | 20 (68) | 17 (63) | 12 (54) | 8 (46) | |
| Avg low °C (°F) | -8 (18) | -5 (23) | -2 (28) | 2 (36) | 6 (43) | 10 (50) | 11 (52) | 10 (50) | 8 (46) | 2 (36) | -4 (25) | -8 (18) | |
| Rain cm (inches) | 0.07 (0) | 0.11 (0) | 0.22 (0.1) | 0.56 (0.2) | 2.32 (0.9) | 5.89 (2.3) | 9.68 (3.8) | 9.81 (3.9) | 5.55 (2.2) | 0.48 (0.2) | 0.04 (0) | 0.05 (0) | |
| Source: per MSN 2008 | |||||||||||||
[edit] Map
[edit] Photos
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[edit] Getting in & Getting out
[edit] By Air
Lhasa (拉萨) can be reached through air (Gonggar Airport). Gonggar Airport (贡嘎机场) (IATA: LXA) is 98 km south of Lhasa city. Daily flights from Chengdu to Lhasa take about 2 hours and cost 1200 RMB. There are also flights from Beijing (北京), Chongqing (重庆), Guangzhou (广州), Hong Kong (香港), Kunming (昆明), Qamdo, Shanghai, Xi'an, Xining (西宁), and Shangri-la (香格里拉), and an international flight to Kathmandu, Nepal.
Airport buses takes about two hours to get to the city. The bus ticket is about 40 RMB. Taking a taxi costs about 250 to 300 RMB.
In 2006 the Galashan tunnel opened which cuts driving time from Gonggar Airport to Lhasa in half.
[edit] By Train
You can also go to Lhasa through the new Qinghai-Tibet Railway (zh:青藏铁路), which connects China's Xining (zh:西宁), Qinghai (zh:青海) province to Lhasa. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has a total distance of 1956 km (1222 miles). The 815 km (509 miles) Xining (zh:西宁)-Golmud (zh:格尔木) section was completed by 1984, and the 1142 km (714 miles) Golmud (zh:格尔木)-Lhasa (zh:拉萨) was opened on 1 July 2006.
Trains run to Lhasa from Beijing (zh:北京), Chengdu (zh:成都), Chongqing (zh:重庆), Xining (zh:西宁), Lanzhou (zh:兰州), Guangzhou (zh:广州), and Shanghai (zh:上海).
Train T27 from Beijing (departing at 21:30 from Beijing West Train Station) to Lhasa (arriving at 20:00 on the third day) takes about 46.5 hours, covering a distance of 4,064 km or 2,500 miles. The ticket price is 389 RMB for a hard seat, 813 RMB for a lower hard sleeper (a lower bunk in a basic sleeping car), and 1,262 RMB for a lower soft sleeper (a bunk in a more luxurious sleeping car). The added charge for soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper tickets are 0.09, 0.10 and 0.16 RMB per km per person respectively. There is also a nominal extra charge for forward-facing seats/berths.
Ticket prices in RMB for five-carriage trains in the testing period were as follows:
| Train | From/To | Distance (km) | Duration (approx. hrs) | Hard Seat | Hard Sleeper (lower berth) | Soft Sleeper (lower berth) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T27/28 | Beijing west - Lhasa | 4064 | 47 | 389 | 813 | 1262 |
| T22/23/24/21 | Chengdu - Lhasa | 3360 | 45.5 | 331 | 712 | 1104 |
| T222/223/224/221 | Chongqing - Lhasa | 4064 | 46 | 355 | 754 | 1168 |
| T164/165/166/163 | Shanghai - Lhasa | 4373 | 49 | 406 | 845 | 1314 |
| T264/265/266/263 | Guangzhou - Lhasa | 4064 | 56 | 451 | 923 | 1434 |
| K917/K918 | Lanzhou - Lhasa | 2188 | 16.5 | 242 | 552 | 854 |
| N917/N918 | Xining - Lhasa | 1972 | 13 | 226 | 523 | 810 |
Refer to Lhasa Train Schedule for detailed up-to-date train schedule.
All the above trains (except for train T27/28 between Lhasa and Beijing) run every other day.
[edit] By Bus
There buses go from Qinghai Province into northern Tibet. But the bus trip can be very very exhausted.
[edit] By Ship
[edit] Getting Around
[edit] By Public Bus
Buses are available in front of Jokhang Temple or at the parking lot near the temple for Tsurphu Gompa, Ganden Gompa, Nyemo (Dazi), Phenpo Lhundrub (Linzhou), Meldro Gungkar (Mozhugongka), Chushul (Qushui), Taktse (Dazi), Gongkar (Gongga), and other nearby areas. Tickets are available at the ticket office at the parking lot or when you board the bus. --from wikitravel.org
[edit] By Tour Bus
[edit] By Metro
[edit] By Taxi & Rental Car
Taxis are a standard Y10 for anywhere in Lhasa city. Minibuses operate to areas such as Norbulingka, Sera Monastery, Drepung Monastery, and other nearby sites. --from wikitravel.org
[edit] Attractions
- Potala Palace (布达拉宫)
- Jokhang Temple (大昭寺)
- Norbulingka Palace (罗布林卡宫)
- Sera Monastery (色拉寺)
- Drepung Monastery (哲蚌寺)
[edit] Hotels
[edit] Budget
[edit] Luxury
[edit] Restaurants
A lot of nice and comfortable restaurants can be found in Lhasa old district. Most of them are located near the Jokhang Temple along Beijing Zhong Lu (or called Beijing Road Middle) and its tributary road Zang Yiyuan Lu (or called Tibetan Hospital Road). Some of them serve western food, Nepali and Indian food. Examples are Snowland Restaurant, Lhasa Kitchen, Naga French Restaurant, Tashi Restaurant. Each meal can be as cheap as USD$3 per person (price at 2005 October). On the southeast corner of Barkhor Street, there is a well-known Tibetant restaurant among backpackers -- Makye Ame - means beautiful woman. Sitting at this second-floor restaurant gives you an amazing view, especially at sunset, of the part of the Barkhor Street which is full of pilgrams moving in clockwise direction. The location of Makye Ame is unbeatable, but the food is nothing to write home about. The smaller Tibetan restaurants, especially the teahouses are much cheaper and serve more tasty food.
- Snowland Restaurant Tenjieling Road #4, near Jokhang Square, phone 0891-6337323 Large menu features a mix of Western, Napali, Indian and Tibetan food. Good service, good food, very popular.
- New Mandala Restaurant with roof top Garden, located in front of Jokhang Temple, phone 86-0891-6342235. Indian, Nepali, Tibetan and some Western dishes. Roof top has good views of the city. Try the Yak sizzler.
Tengyelink Cafe. Great Yak Steak, great atmosphere. Best food to be found in Lhasa. Cheap breakfast options are available.
For Chinese restaurants, though usually poorly-decorated, meals are much cheaper. A plate of beef noodles can be as cheap as USD$0.7 and you can have a full meal including drinks for less than 4 euro! Most of the Chinese restaruants, however, serve Sichuan's spicy cuisine. In recently years, a lot of Chinese, most of them from Sichuan and Shannxi provinces, moved to Lhasa for business.
Apart from eating at restaurants, you can buy food or snacks in the main supermarkets, all around Beijing Zhong Lu.
- Hong Yan
- Le Bai Long
- Si Fang
- inside Lhasa Department Mall
Yak meat. Most restaurants sell Yak meat and it is a must try in Tibet. Yaks are actually cattle that are adapted to the highlands. Dried yak meat is available at all supermarkets, as is another Tibetan staple, tsampa.
Although Tibetan restaurants are more traditional and full of history, to the western traveler the Chinese food might seem more diverse and more appealing than the greasy boiled yak meat typically served in the Tibetan ones. Westerners also might avoid the traditional Tibetan tea which is in fact black tea with yak butter in it and is typically being kept warm in heat insulating containers for quite some time.
Be prepared with at least a few basic food describing words as in many of the restaurants they only speak chinese! Be prepared to learn to use chop sticks as some restaurants do not have forks, spoons or knives. --from wikitravel.org
[edit] Shopping
ATMs and foreign currency conversion can be done at the Bank of China main office west of Potala Palace or at the branch on Beijing Donglu between the Kirey Hotel and the Banok Shol Hotels.
Collectables in Lhasa The stalls around the Barkhor offer fascinating browsing. Though much (predictably) is junk from Nepal and other parts of China. Bronze laughing Buddhas with no connection with Tibetan tantric belief are just one of the many examples. Despite this there are still many authentic items to be had. Ignore bronzes and paintings - they are all fake. Instead, look for household items and carved wood pieces, such as bowls, pilgrims' stamps, silver items such as gau (amulet cases of various sizes worn by men and women), silver and brass personal seals, old Tibetan banknotes, knitted satchels and woven bags and so on.Though this is quite fascinating for a tourist to look at it is good not to buy any Tibetan antiques as it destroys the culture.
The very large shopping emporia that have appeared around the Barkhor should be treated with caution, unless imported souvenirs are your thing. If you want a local thangka painting for example, find a workshop on the back streets where they are being painted in front of your eyes. This way you will get the real thing rather than Nepalese hack work, and have a more interesting experience buying. Searching in the back streets around the Barkhor is very rewarding in this respect, and you can find artisans making paintings, furniture, clay sculpture, masks and ceremonial banners and applique. Not all of it is easily transported home, but it is fascinating to watch.
Tibet is the home of traditional carpet making, though the industry suffered a decline after 1959 from which it has only slowly begun to recover. Today many "Tibetan" carpets are in fact made in Nepal in factories run by Tibetan exiles. For the visitor, a little caution is needed when buying Tibetan carpets in Lhasa since the majority of pieces displayed in stores in the Barkhor and in front of the Potala are in fact imported from non-Tibetan parts of China, and many of the designs on display have no connection with Tibetan tradition, Turkomen and Afghan designs being common!. In some workshops you will find a few carpets on looms for display purposes, but the carpets in the showroom will mostly have been shipped in from elsewhere.
So how to find authentic Tibetan carpets? By all means visit the factories and their showrooms. Look closely at what is being woven, and make sure the piece you are buying matches what you are shown on the looms. Check the smell of the carpet: authentic Tibetan wool has a high lanolin content and a distinctive odor: cheaper wools from Qinghai and Mongolia are dry by comparison.
A few older carpets can still occasionally be found on the Barkhor and the shops around, though good, old carpets are much sought after by collectors, so prices tend to be surprisingly high even in Lhasa.
- Tibetan Rugs Snow Leopard Industries, #2 East Zang Yi Yuan Road, Lhasa (next to the Snowland Hotel and near Barkhor Square). Phone 0891-6321481. Small shop with a wide variety of traditional and contemporary Tibetan designs made at their own factory. Rug prices are fixed and very reasonable. Owner Phurbu Tsamchu speaks English and can explain about the different Tibetan designs and the process of making rugs. This store also has a fixed-price souvenir shop with very low, set prices. Can arrange shipping of rugs to the USA. Credit cards accepted.
- Tibetan Rugs The Tanva Carpet Workshop, at Nam village on the road between Lhasa and Gongkar airport, is a new Tibetan carpet workshop using only handspun Tibetan highland wool to make both traditional and contemporary carpets. You can see the whole carpet making process from start to finish and also buy carpets (including 'seconds' at reduced prices) in the showroom on site. To get directions and arrange a visit call factory manager Norbu on his mobile 1398 990 8681. Tanva makes the carpets that are sold in Torana stores in Beijing and Shanghai. There are photos and details on the Torana website [1].
- Oil Paintings Kharma Gallery, on the 2nd floor across from the Snowland Hotel, phone 86-891-6338013. Art gallery offering quality oil paintings by Tibetan artists on Tibetan themes (landscape, people, religious, animals, etc.)
- Gedun Choephel This gallery, on the corner of the Barkhor, roughly at the furthest point from the Jokhang temple, is the meeting place of Lhasa's most avant-garde group of artists, several of whom have recently exhibited in Beijing and London. The gallery runs rotating exhibitions and is well worth a look.
- Handicrafts Dropenling Handicraft Development Center [2], 11 Chak Tsal Gang Road, phone 0891-6360558. Call for directions, or from Barkhor Square, head to the Lhasa Mosque, then turn left. This shop is not the cheapest but has very high quality items made in Tibet. Profits go to artisan development programs. Credit cards accepted.
- All types of handicrafts, prayer wheels, and other items can be purchased from small kiosks along the circumambulation route around the Jokhang Temple and around Barkhor square. Bargaining is expected.
--from wikitravel.org
[edit] Night Life & Entertainment
[edit] Sports & Recreation
- The koras with other pilgrims
- Drink tea and eat thugpa in the many teahouses near the Jokhang
- Shop in the Barkhor square
- Watch people
- Blind Massage at Medical Massage Clinic Lhasa, located on the 3rd floor of Number 59 Beijing Middle Road, directly across from the Kichu Hotel (can ask at the hotel for directions). Phone 6320870. Cost 80 RMB per hour. English spoken. A vocational project of NGO Braille Without Borders [3]. Great way to adjust to the altitude or just relax.
--from wikitravel.org
[edit] Excursions & Day Trips
On the street east of the Yak Hotel, buses wait for passengers early in the morning for destinations such as Shigatse, Tsethang, Samye, Nakchu and Danzhung. From the long distance bus station, buses are available to Golmud, Chengdu (via Xining and Lanzhou), Nakchu, Chamdo, Bayi, Tsethang, Shigatse and Dram. Depending on your paperwork, you might not be allowed to purchase tickets for all these destinations.
A 7-day trip to Kathmandu typically includes hotel and breakfast, a 4-wheel drive jeep, a driver and a guide. The guide will take care to register you at the police when you leave one city and when you arrive in another one. This is standard procedure.
It is easy and trouble-free to fly out of Lhasa, with many daily flights to various major Chinese cities and several times a week to Kathmandu, Nepal.
- Samye Monastery was constructed in 779AD under the patronage of King Trisong Detsen and overseen by Santarakshita and Padmasambhava, two prominent Buddhist teachers from India. It was the first Buddhist Monastery established in Tibet and as such remains one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the region. Samye is located near Dranang, 150 kms south-east of Lhasa. Buses and minivans are available to take you to Samye. Plan a two day trip. If you can spend more time, go to nearby hermitages at Chimpu, and feel more spiritual vibes than in Samye proper. Permit imperative if you want to avoid police hassle and fines.
- Ganden Monastery is located on the south side of Kyi-chu River 45 km east of Lhasa. It is the head monastery of the Gelukpa (Yellow Hat) order of Tibetan Buddhism. Built in 1409 by Tsongkhapa, the founder of Gelukpa and recently reconstructed, this monastery offers outstanding views from its mountainside location.
A popular trekking route is available between Ganden and Samye Monasteries. The average is 4-5 days with fast walkers taking 3 days. --from wikitravel.org
[edit] Tips & Practical Info
Lhasa is 3650 meters (about 12 000 feet) above sea level, so there is considerable risk of altitude sickness, especially if you fly in from a much lower altitude so your body does not have time to acclimatise. This is a serious concern; altitude sickness can easily ruin a holiday and can even be fatal. Inland Chinese traveling to the Tibet Plateau always take special drugs to help mitigate altitude sickness. These drugs were originally developed for military personnel to accommordate quickly in high altitude areas. So they can be very useful sometime and are easily available at hotels where you stay. Gao Yuan Kang (高原康, A Healthy Plateau, literally)or Gao Yuan Ning(高原宁, A Peaceful Plateau) are two effecitve drugs among others.
If you must fly to Lhasa, it would be wise to fly via an intermediate destination such as Kunming at 1950 meters (6200 feet) and spend several days at that intermediate destination completely acclimatizing there before flying to Lhasa.
Do not under any circumstances give or show to monks or locals pictures of Dalai Lama as this can get you in trouble and cause severe trouble for the recepient. Keep in mind some monks may colaborate with the authorities, or may not be monks at all.
Take common sense precautions when shopping at the many small kiosks around the Barkhor and along the Jokhang Temple circumambulation route. While problems are few, leaving large backpacks at your hotel and keeping your wallet well guarded are both good ideas. Do not give to children begging and be cautious before giving to any beggers in this area at all; giving to one may attract a crowd.
- Do not wear a hat inside the Jokhang, Potala or other sacred sites. Please no short pants or tank tops. When visiting shrines it is customary to leave a small money offering, especially where you do not have to buy a ticket!
- Circumambulate stupas and other sacred objects in a clock-wise direction.
- Do not climb onto statues, mani stones or other sacred objects.
- Photography is NOT allowed inside the Potala Palace. You can take photos in the Jokhang temple. Some monasteries will allow photography upon payment of a small donation or fee. Monks begging will often allow a photograph after you make a small contribution. When in doubt, ask before snapping your camera.
--from wikitravel.org
