Tibet/Xining/Shanghai tour with Fam Group¡¡7th Nov, 2006 We gathered at the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza Beijing in the early morning, and transferred to Beijing Airport for flight 4114 at 9:15 am to Tibet. The Fam Group we joined had 20 travel-agents from different countries and cities: France, Russia, Australia, Austria, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Hong Kong.
At 13:00, we landed at Chengdu airport and spent 40 minutes transit break at the airport. Two hours later, we finally arrived Tibet. Two guides from Tibet CTS welcomed us at the airport, one of the guides named Lijun who comes from Beijing and has been working in Tibet for 5 years, he can tell many interesting stories about Tibet. Another guide is a beautiful Tibet lady named Yangzhen who can speak very good English. At the airport, we received our first Hada from the Tibet girls. Hada is a long narrow scarf made of silk embodying purity and good fortune to family people, friends, guests whom they love and respect.
Sunshine in Tibet was so strong at mid-day in November such that we even felt a little bit hot when we arrived there. We took a very comfortable van traveling to our hotel - Yalutsangbu River Hotel, a 4-star hotel which is rated to be the best hotel in Lhasa. On our way to the hotel, we had the opportunity to sightsee the Tibet villages and the miraculous landscape of Yalutsangbu River, which is the highest sea level river in the world. Everything in sight here were very unique and enjoyable.
In the evening, the hotel made a welcome ceremony for us with delicious food, wine and Tibetan songs from the beautiful girls. This was followed by a welcome speech delivered by the hotel general manager.
Yalutsangbu River Hotel, a new and comfortable hotel is decorated with Tibet style tastefully and is a good choice for tourists visiting Tibet. A wide selection of Chinese and western food are offered in this hotel. ¡¡
8th Nov, 2006 After enjoying the western style buffet for our breakfast, we began our visit to the Patala Palace, located only 10 minutes driving away from the Yalutsangbu River Hotel. In November, there were not many tourists as the previous three months: August, September, and October. However, the Palace was not as great as we imagined.
We took about one hour visiting the Patala Palace, then to Selasi Monastery which is one of the four biggest temples in Lhasa, and it is also a Buddhist Institute where we noticed that more than 100 Buddhist students were debating in group about some topics using Tibet language. No one can understand what they were taking about, but they looked very seriously. Our guide told us they were discussing the Buddhist Lection, which was very interesting scene we never experienced before.
¡¡ 9th Nov, 2006 In the morning, we were transferred to Shicgtzse, another famous city which is 360 km away from Tibet and took around 10 hours to get there (9:15am-6:30pm). On the way to Shicgtzse, we came across a few lakes in which their beautiful views were very impressive. The Lhasa River runs along the highway from Lhasa to Shicgtzse. The most beautiful lake is the famous Yangzhouyong Lake that is so blue and clean sitting at the foot of Snow Mountains. Those surrounding mountains were more than 7000 km above sea level and the lake was more than 3100 km above sea level.
Breathing the fresh air and embracing the charming scenery, we had our picnic lunch by a riverbank. A small Tibetan village was in sight on the other side of river, a Tibet boy showed us a game when we were having lunch. He used a rope whipping a small stone into the water and his wonderful skill had made the group of tourists so surprised.
In the evening, we had dinner at Shandong hotel and received another warmly reception meeting. This hotel was listed in the Guinness World Record, which is the highest hotel in the world above sea level. At this dinner, we found out there were many vegetables grown in Shicgtzse. Because of the remote location, prices of foods especially vegetables used to be very expensive before, as they were all transported from other provinces like Sichuan. Nowadays, many green vegetables are available growing at such high altitude places.
10th Nov, 2006 In the morning, we went to the Baiju Temple which is 90 km away from the hotel away Shicgtzse. The temple was erected in 1418. There is a Tibet village standing close to the temple. In the afternoon, we visited the Thshi Lhumpo Temple, a very special temple with large yard. In the evening, we had our dinner at Xintai Hotel (3-star).
11th
Nov, 2006 In the morning, we drove back to Lhasa - traveling 260 km in 5 hours. On the way to Lhasa, we visited a local Tibetan family.
In the afternoon, we went to Rennim Commune restaurant for our lunch. This was an interesting restaurant where all waiters here were dressing in soldier uniform. Foods were well tasty with local feature and mushroom was the main serving here.
After lunch, we were free. Helen and I went to visit the Beijing Lu, the largest business street of Lhasa located very near to the Patala Palace. However, we didn¡¯t think this was a good shopping place for tourists as the goods offered in those stores and departments were all you could buy anywhere with not many local features. In comparison, the Bajiao Street in front of Dazhao Temple was a better spot for tourists.
In the evening, we had dinner in Xiangbala hotel, a 4-star hotel being promoted for tourists. We were guided to have a look at the hotel rooms before taking dinner.
12th Nov, 2006
In the afternoon, we were guided to visit Lhasa Hospital, a place recommended for tourists to buy Tibetan Medicine. The head of the hospital could speak very good English and we were briefed about the traditional medicine for one hour. Afterwards, we went to Dazhao Temple, a very popular temple for Tibet people. The temple was built in year 647 covering an area of over 25,000 square meters. No matter for its history, legend, architecture or importance for Tibetan people, this is a must-visit spot for tourists.
In front of the temple, there is a famous market named Bajiao Shopping Street, which possessed a long and old history comparable to the Dazhao Temple. It was a small shopping market specialized in serving those who paid respect to Buddha coming from far places, and with more and more worshippers and tourists visiting here, it became a busy and popular business street from time to time.
In the evening, we had a farewell dinner in the hotel where we had stayed.
13th Nov, 2006
We spent one night on the train and lesser people felt uncomfortable for the altitude reaction of plateau - even though the train cruising across the Tanggula Mountain Pass west to the express line 50 kilometers at an altitude of 5,072 meters. There are many enjoyable types of scenery on the way from Lhasa to Xining - the Kunlun Mountains, Qinghai Lake, Kokuxili ¡®human unexplored¡¯ area and the origin of Toutou River, etc.
14th Nov, 2006 We arrived Xining almost noon time while the Xining CTS guide took us to sightsee Tu national minority village, which was 50km away from Xining and where we had our lunch there. After tasting the local food of Tu, we enjoyed by watching their Anzhou Wu (Dance) and many other wonderful performances.
In Xining, we were accommodated at Qinghai hotel - an old 4 star hotel. The condition was not good enough. However, the dinner for this evening was unforgettable. Also, the head of Qinghai Hotel and one of the leaders from Beijing CTS gave us warm welcome speeches.
15th Nov, 2006
In the afternoon, we took our flight to Shanghai. Due to the delay of our flight, we managed to arrive Shanghai in the evening. We parted from the Fam Group and were guided to tour Huangpu River Cruise by a lady from CTS. In Shanghai the same evening, we stayed at Regent Hotel, a very good 5 star hotel.
16th Nov, 2006 With whole day raining, we made a rush tour of Yu Yuan, the Chenghuang Miao Street and the Bund, before attending the Shanghai Travel Fair.
In the evening, we left Shanghai for Beijing by train. |
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