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23 Days China Tour

Visit Time: Aug 08, 2007

Travel Features :

• 1.Lhasa city culture: Potala palace, Jokhang Temple and Barkhor pilgrimage circle, Tibet Museum, Tibetan carpet factory and Tibetan traditional medical exhibition

Travel Itinerary:

Day 01 August8thFly out of Shenzhen BaoAn airport to Chengdu and then transfer to Lhasa airport; arrive in Tsedang of Tibet. Rest for acclimatization

            Arrive in Lhasa airport, meet your local Tibetan guide and driver, and then transfer to Tsedang city.
  
Day02August 9th sightseeing in Tsedang: Trandruk monastery and Yunbulakhang
Built in 7th century, Trandruk Monastery is the first Buddhist chapel in Tibet. It houses a precious pearl Thangka brought here by Princess Wencheng. This Thangka is inlaid of thousands of pearls and hundreds of other gems. Located 5 kilometers south of Tsedang, the monastery is on the road leading to Yumbu Lakhang, the first palace in Tibet. So when time permits, we will arrange the visit to Trandruk Monastery and Yumbu Lakhang on the same day.

Day 03August 10th Tsedang-Samye: visit Samye monastery on the way.

Samye Monastery, it was built in 761 and is the first formal monastery that establishes triratna in Tibet. Combining Chinese, Tibetan and Indian architecture style, the  structure reflects the ideal universe of Buddhism. There are many valuable and unique murals which hardly can be seen at anywhere else.

Day 04 August 11th Samye monastery-Lhasa
Day 05 August 12th Sightseeing in Lhasa: Potala palace, Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Street
In the whole morning, visit Potala palace, the highest palace in the world! It was added to the list of world culture heritage sites by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1994.At the roof of it, you can have a bird-eye view of Lhasa.
After lunch, visit Jokhang temple, it is the first built during the period of Sontsan Gambo in the 7th century; it is also the first monastery for most pilgrims to visit as it is widely recognized as the spiritual center of Tibetan Buddhism. Then sightseeing or shopping at Barkhor Bazaar near Jokhang temple.

Day 06 August13th sightseeing in Lhasa: Sera Monastery and Drepung monastery

Drepung Monastery is the largest monastery in Tibet. At its peak time, there were more than 10,000 monks. It was founded in 15th century at 5km to the western suburb of Lhasa, and once served as the living palace of Dalai Lama before reconstruction of Potala Palace. Here you can find great murals, Buddhist scriptures and crafts.

In the afternoon, visit Sera monastery, which was created in 1419 and has always been an important Buddhist seminary. As rose are planted everywhere in the monastery, it is also called “the court of wild rose”. Today still 200 lamas live in there. There you can enjoy the exciting Scripture debating of Lamas (monks).
Day 07-08 August 14th-August 15th fee days in Lhasa only with guide
Day 09 August 16th Lhasa-Ganden monastery –Lhasa: visit Ganden monastery and local family visit

Ganden monastery, which is the first Gelupga monastery in Tibet (Gelupga is Pachen Lama and Dalai Lama's order);  
and one of the six biggest monasteries in Tibet. You can find the extremely delicate murals and sculptures. Our guide will lead you to visit the local Tibetan family on the way back; you can feel Tibetan culture and religion vividly.

Day 10 August 17th Lhasa—Namtso: visit Namtso Lake  

Namtso Lake is the highest salt lake in the world; it is one of the three most scared lakes in Tibet. Its beautiful sunrise and sunsets attracts many people around the world. There you can also have an overlook to the glacier of Nyenchen Tang La.

Day 11 August 18th Trekking around Namtso Lake and visit meditation caves around it.
Day 12 August 19th Namtso-Shigatse: visit Tashilumpo monastery and visit Shigatst city
Shigatse is the second largest town in Tibet. In Shigatse，visit Tashilunpo monastery, which is the seat of the Panchen Lama built in 1447 and one of the six grand monasteries in Tibet
Day13 August 20th Shigtatse-Tingri: visit Sakya monastery

Sakya Monastery is also called the "Second Dunhuang" as it stores numerous valuable art pieces. In addition to lots of statues of Buddha, there are tens of thousands of sutras written in gold powder. So it is also known as the greatest religious library in Tibet.
Day 14 August 21st Tingri-Rongbuk monastery: visit Rongbuk monastery- the highest monastery in the world
Day 15 August 22nd Rongbuk monastery-EBC-Tingri: visit EBC
Day 16 August 23rd Tingri-Shigatse
Day 17 August24th Shigatse- Shgatse-Gyantse: visit Shalu monastery Palkhor monastery and Gyantse Kumbum in Gyantse

In Gyantse you will visit Palkhor Monastery as well as the splendid Kumbum Stupa (100-Thousand-Buddha Pagoda) nearby, both of them built in the15th century and situated in the northwestern edge of Gyantse. This typical Tibetan Buddhist monastery is the only one large building complex in Tibet that old monastery and stupas are completely preserved and characterized as symbol of a monument. It is recorded 14,000 kilograms of bronze was used to make the 8-meter-high sitting statue of Sykamoni Buddha housed in the grand hall of the temple. The 8 story Stupa is 42m high and 62m in diameter contains a total of 76 chapels with wonderful murals revered by art scholars around the world. Then, drive to Shigatse, visit Shalu monastery which is the mixture architecture of Han style and Tibetan style on the way.

Day18 August 25th Gyantse-Lhasa：visit Yamdrok Lake (one of the three holy lakes in Tibet) one the way

. Today, drive to Lhasa(about 8 hours driving) along the Yaluzangbu River; enjoy the beautiful view of the valley en route.

The Yaluzangbu River: with 2,051 km long, the Yaluzangbu River turns and twists like a silver dragon from the west to the east into the valleys of South Tibet. It runs
through Muotuo County. After a 90-degree turn, it empties into the Indian Ocean.

Yamdrok Yumtso Lake is one of holy lakes in Tibet lying about 100 kilometers southwest of Lhasa. It is 4441 meters above sea level. We usually drop a visit here
on the way from Lhasa to Gyantse. There are many islands providing homes to wild ducks and geese. It is also called the "Fish Store of Tibet".
Day 19-20 August 26th-27th Take train from Lhasa to Lanzhou and then transfer to Guilin by flight
Day 21 August 28th sightseeing in Guilin: Enjoy a morning cruise down the winding Li River to Yangshuo
Day 22 August 29th Yangshuo to Guilin

Day 23 August 30th Fly out of Guilin to Shenzhen BaoAn airport

Traveler's Comments on this tour:

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Tibet and all the wonderful things we saw and experienced. I would like to thank you for organising it all so well and I will recommend you to any of my friends who think of visiting your lovely country. While there were one or two things which did not quite work perfectly, there was nothing which spoilt the holiday and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

•Everything well organised as we had requested

• All arrangements, permits etc worked well

• Hotels were generally excellent, good value, friendly and helpful staff, clean and pleasant. Unfortunately, breakfasts were not always good for Westerners but that was our fault! We bought our own bread and bananas.

• The only two really “bad” stops were at Old Tingri and at Nam Tso, where the camp was very disappointing. We expected to stay in traditional tents, the whole area was littered with rubbish and we were pestered by beggars every time we left our room. In addition, I picked up a very nasty tummy bug from which I am still suffering.

• Restaurants were generally well-chosen and had good menus but we found that we didn’t need to eat cooked meals twice a day and preferred to buy our own food for a lunch-time picnic in the local supermarkets. It may be a fact that other Westerners may feel this way too and we feel they should be offered the choice of what they would like to do at lunch-time. We enjoyed taking a picnic and doing a “Kora” and eating our food somewhere quiet and peaceful. It also meant that we could eat lunch when we chose to and were not dependant on the availability of suitable restaurants.

• This may be something your company could do, but we found that there were festivals etc taking place which we did not know about or missed entirely. Maybe you could provide for your guides a list of special events which would be of interest to tourists. The itinerary could then be adjusted to include some of these.

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