Tibet Travel Update June 2009

I have had a lot of requests for updated information regarding travel regulations in Tibet for 2009. I will do my best to keep accurate, up-to-date reports on Tibet travel regulations throughout the year. All of the following information is current as of December, 2009.

Lhasa and all areas of the Tibet Autonomous Region are now open to foreign travelers. The Tibet Tourism Bureau (TTB) said that it will take 3 to 4 days to issue travel permits.

All Tibetan areas in Yunnan province are currently open. No permits or tours are required to go to Dechen Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in northwest Yunnan. It is not likely that this area will close as Tibetans only make up about 1/3 of the population of the prefecture.

All Tibetan regions in Gansu province (Ganlho/Gannan Tibet Autonomous Prefecture), including Labrang Monastery, are now open! We have been waiting to report this for many months and it is finally true! Along with Labrang Monastery, the small town of Taktsang Lhamo (Langmusi) is also open. There are daily buses to Labrang from Xining. Lanzhou and Rebkong.

The Tibetan areas in Qinghai province are all open including Rebkong, Qinghai Lake, Golog, Jyekundo and Nangchen. There have been recent reports of foreigners being in all of these areas without any problems.

Many regions in far western Qinghai (Haixi Prefecture) remain closed as they have been for the past 25+ years.

The Tibetan counties in Ngawa (Aba) Prefecture in Sichuan are all open to foreign tourists.

The Tibetan counties in Garnze (Ganzi) Prefecture are all open. Many foreigners have reported going to Kangding, Dege, Manigango, Litang and Batang without any problems. For more information about the Sichuan Tibetan updates, contact Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel in Chengdu.

And again, Lhasa and the TAR are now open and will be for the rest of the year.

The following are the travel regulations that foreigners have to follow in order to travel to Lhasa and the Tibet Autonomous Region:

All foreigners traveling to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), including Lhasa and the surrounding area must have a Tibet Travel Permit and a tour guide (yes, you need a tour guide even if you are only going to Lhasa). Your permit will be checked before you board the plane or train to Lhasa. I just recently returned from spending 3 weeks in Central Tibet (U-Tsang) and before I boarded the train in Xining for Lhasa, my permit was thoroughly inspected. A police officer inside the train station read it carefully and wrote down all of the information from the permit and recorded it in a ledger. People report the police doing the same thing in both the Chengdu and Beijing train stations as well as at airports when flying to Lhasa. The days of going to Lhasa without a permit are over...at least for now. If, by a miracle, you somehow arrive in Lhasa without a permit, don't expect to be able to pick one up in Lhasa so that you can continue down the Friendship Highway to Nepal or to Everest Base Camp. It will be difficult to get travel permits to go outside of Lhasa if you came to Lhasa illegally (ie. without a permit). If you hear rumors of people arriving in Lhasa without any permits, consider them to be VERY lucky. It is VERY unlikely that you will be able to make it to Lhasa without a tour or any travel permits.

All travel in the TAR requires you to have a tour guide with you, even in Lhasa. Some people and a few travel agencies will report that a tour guide is not needed in Lhasa, but that is not true. I regularly call the Tibet Tourism Bureau (TTB) regarding travel regulations. The TTB is the department of the government that sets the travel regulations for foreign travel in Tibet. Each week they report the same thing: that foreigners must have a government licensed tour guide with them while in Tibet and while in Lhasa. All hotels must be booked by the travel agency that you choose before arriving in Lhasa. You have your choice of government approved hotels, but you have to have all reservations made before you arrive in Lhasa. Most travel agencies in Lhasa, Xining and Chengdu have good relationships with hotels in Lhasa and can offer better rates than you can find on-line.

If you are traveling within the Lhasa City Municipality (Lhasa Metro Area), you can use public transportation for the most part, though your tour guide will have to accompany you. If you want to go to places like Ganden Monastery, Tidrum Nunnery or Drigung Monastery, you do not need to book a Land Cruiser tour to get out there. You can take public buses to reach all of these places.

If you want to travel outside of Lhasa to places like Kham, Kailash or down the Friendship Highway to Everest or the Nepal border, you have to book a tour that includes a Land Cruiser and a driver (as well as a tour guide). It is not possible to take public transportation anywhere outside of the Lhasa City Municipality. There are numerous checkpoints throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region that will be difficult to get around if you are traveling independently.

In addition to your Tibet Travel Permit, there are other permits that are needed for traveling to certain regions of Tibet. If you only plan on being in the Lhasa area, no additional permits are needed. However, if you plan on traveling west of Shigatse or east of Lhasa to Lhoka, Nyingtri or Chamdo Prefectures, you will also need an Alien Travel Permit. An Alien Travel Permit is usually arranged by your tour guide at the Tibet Tourism Bureau in Shigatse. (UPDATE: All foreigners going to the Everest region beyond Shigatse now need a Military Permit. This rule began on June 1, 2009). You cannot get this on your own. If you plan on going west of Lhatse into Ngari Prefecture or to Mt. Kailash (West Tibet), you will also need a Military Permit in addition to your Tibet Travel Permit and Alien Travel Permit. Military permits usually take several days to arrange and again, can only be arranged by a travel agency. If you plan on traveling to sensitive border areas near India, you will further need a Foreign Affairs Permit in addition to the 3 other permits mentioned above. Again, there are numerous police checkpoints throughout Tibet. It will be nearly impossible to travel without having these permits, a tour guide or a private vehicle with driver. If you are caught without having these permits, you can expect a fine between Y300 and Y500 and to be escorted out of Tibet immediately. In certain areas such as near the India border, you can expect the consequences to be even stiffer with the possibility of being detained by the police for a few days.

There are always going to be stories of people who were able to travel to Lhasa without a permit or who were able to make it to places like Kailash or Chamdo without any hassles, but in reality the chances of this happening are very low. If you are set on traveling through Tibet illegally, good luck to you! But keep in mind that your chances of success are quite minimal.

The Tibetan prefectures in Qinghai, western Sichuan and southwest Gansu do not require permits or organized tours. These great Tibetan areas can be explored independently using public transportation, though a private vehicle will allow you to see places that the public buses do not go to.

I will keep this post updated as situations change.

If you have any questions regarding travel in Tibet, feel free to send an email at thelandofsnows[email protected]. I would be happy to help you with your Tibet travel related questions.

Comments

[Levinson Axelrod]

Your adventures in Tibet are wonderful. Thanks for sharing this experience through your words and photos. Will be looking forward to more updates.

[Traveler to Tibet]

MT.Kailash is a good place for travel, I hope there will come a day that I can conquer it.

[nichypal]

Wow!

The blog seems to be interesting.

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[aa_astro]

Today(Jul 11th) i was in Lanzhou and tried to buy ticket to Langmusi.But they didnt sell it to me(also other Hongkong girl).
i tried again with Xiahe and Hezuo.but it's worthless.
so have to take a train to Xining and will try to take a bus to Xiahe or Gannan tmrw.

[Athrun Cruz]

These look very hospitable to me...

[Account Deleted]

We have had several foreigners visiting our AmdoCafe Langmusi, so this time it really looks like LangMusi (Tib. Taktsang Lhamo) is open.
We had 7 Europeans yesterday (June 2nd).

[Diane Terry]

i'm still planning on traveling from chengdu to derge via kangding, lhakhang, gansi, yilhun latso lake, and manigango in August. From what you know at this time, do you think we'll be able to do this, in re closures, etc?

[emmi]

Hi!

Thank's for the very helpfull informationblog. It's quite hard to try to plan trips to tibet cause the situations chance so often and i get very different kinds of information depending if i get it from travel agency or some traveller who has been is tibet lately.

One of these friends who was in tibet lately told that its possible to go by trane from chengdu through xining and golmud to tibet. he also said its possible get somekind of permit (i don't know which, sorry!) from the railwaystation. that the permit includes to the trainticket. So... do you know are these informations correct, and what is the situation on those areas right now? he also did his trip without guides facing not any problems, but this is a big and maybe stupid risk to take.

at this time i'll start my trip from yunnan, so the easiest way to go to tibet would be through sichuan and then maybe to lasa or first to qinghai, but i guess these routes are now impossible...?

and! do i have to show that i have some ticket out from tibet when trying to get the permit?

thanks very much again:)!!!

[Account Deleted]

Update on Gannan Gansu. As of Sunday 26th of April Taktsang Lhamo (cn: Langmusi) is closed again. The checkpoint at the beginning of town has come back in place. We understand that the town was open for foreign tourists for a few days, but now closed again. The hotels are completely booked full for the May holliday, but with Chinese tourists. We also understand thet Hezuo and Labrang are still closed.

[Tibet Travel]

I am interested in the Mt. Kailash kora.

[Jessica]

Hello there!

If I am flying from India to Chengdu and then through to Lhasa, do I need a Tibetan Travel Permit?

Can I get it in the airport in Chengdu? How long will it take?

[Losang]

Amdocraft...thank you for the great update from Taktsang Lhamo! If you hear any more news from Gannan and Huangnan Prefectures, please do post it here.

Losang

[Account Deleted]

I think I got good news. I got a phone call today from the manager of AmdoCafe Langmusi. She was told by local officials (incl.police) that foreigners are allowed to visit and stay in Langmusi again. Langmusi (Taktsang Lhamo in Tibetan) is in Southern Gansu, Gannan Prefecture at the border with Sichuan. However, I don't know whether this means that the whole of Gannan (incl Labrang) is completely open now.

[Liz]

I read this entire blog! I’m so jazzed up about traveling. I’m taking off for six months. I’m still in the planning stages. I wonder if anyone has suggestions about the very best places in the world that I could do in six months. I want to to Tibet and found a great site at www.tibetanwildyakadventures.com that gives a whole lot of information on traveling there and offers very reasonable private guide service, which could be good since I don’t speak a work of Chinese or Tibetan, but I’m also wanting to go to Russia and I don’t know if they speak English too or not. Anys suggestions will greatly appreciated!

[rook]

Postpone the Kham+Amdo trip finally.
Will go around Jyekundo's horse racing festival instead.
Hope those areas will open again around that time.

anyway,thank you so much.

[Losang]

I contacted the Qinghai Tourism Bureau (QTB) today (April 7) and they reported that all Tibetan areas of Qinghai remain closed. They also said they will be holding a meeting within the next week to determine when the Tibetan areas in Qinghai will reopen. The QTB are the only ones who can officially open the Tibetan areas in Qinghai.

[Account Deleted]

Travel to Guoluo and Yushu (through HaiNan) seem to be possible for foreigners since yesterday. Someone that wanted to travel to HuangNan was told not to go. Will keep you posted when I hear more.

[rook]

sorry.just want to know anything most up-to-date.
my Kham+amdo plan will start at April 10th.
If the Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu are closed. I will cancel the tripl

thank you.

[rook]

wow..
Seems to be a good news.
Thanks for your info.

[Malika]

thanks for the information. I thought that travelers to Tibet, especially women, might enjoy these films about the Women of Tibet - past and present: http://womenoftibet.org/ When I prepare for a trip I always like to learn something new about where I'm going.

[Account Deleted]

I went to out to Tibetan area in Qinghai (March 21st) and was stopped at the border of HuangNan Tibetan prefecture (Jianzha). Had to return. The security people told me that I could go again after April 1st.

www.amdocraft.com

[Jimmy]

Tibet is closed to foriegners, If so when it will open? anybody know?

Jimmy

[Losang]

Jason...technically, yes you have to have a guide with you even in Lhasa. Usually your guide will only be with you for a few hours each day while in Lhasa as to allow people the freedom to do what they want. Some travel agencies go around having to have a guide by making customers pay a deposit between Y1200 and Y1500. This deposit is basically to make sure you don't cause any problems while in Lhasa. According to the Tibet Tourism Bureau (TTB) this practice is illegal though I do know of several travel agencies that do it.

[Jason]

In Lhasa, when you go shopping, vist a pub or just walking around the centre of Lhasa. You need to be accompanied by a official guide??

Regards

[rook]

Thanks for your update,Losang.

I've got some info from my friend(She ask Tibetan journalist for me). He told about unrest, foreigner was killed.
Insist to go there around June or July instead.