How to Get to Tibet from HongKong

• by Liffity
• Last Updated: 2018-04-18

For most travelers, it is an adventure to travel in Tibet - the Roof of the World. It’s a long journey for travelers to get to Tibet by train. You can take flights to Xining then take trains to Lhasa, and you can also take the direct trains to Lhasa in some Chinese cities. Thus, it must be a long and tough trip for those travelers get to Lhasa from Hong Kong. Commonly, travelers have four ways to arrive in Lhasa from Hong Kong. Among these four routes, the time of arrival varies from 6 hours to three days.

The Advantages of Getting to Tibet from Hong Kong

Traveling to Tibet from Hong Kong does not need a visa for most nations. And it’s very convenient to travel in the mainland China. Travelers can take the direct flights to Hong Kong from all over the world. When you are waiting for transferring flights or trains, you have enough time to travel around.

Hong Kong is an English - speaking region with Britain culture because of the 100 - year colony by British. At present, it is a Chinese region combined Chinese cultures with western customs.

If you don’t have enough time to travel in Hong Kong, you’d better visit some famous highlights here. I’d like to introduce some famous spots for you, including the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon, the night market at Kowloon’s Temple Street, the Victoria Peak, the 34-meter-high statue of Buddha, etc.

Then, you can move to the next destination - Tibet. There are plenty of scenic spots in this Tibetan plateau, such as the lake Mansarovar, holy Mt. Kailash, even Mt. Everest and so on. At present, travelers cannot take direct trains or flights to Tibet from Hong Kong. So you need to take trains and flights in some other cities in China. For travelers, the best gateway is Chengdu because of the multiple flights and less cost.

Four Main Ways to arrive in Lhasa from Hong Kong

1. From Hong Kong to Chengdu, then to Lhasa

This is the fastest way because the transportation is flight. Travelers will fly to Chengdu from Hong Kong, then transfer another flight in Chengdu to Lhasa. This is an expensive way for travelers but it only takes less than six hours to arrive in Lhasa. Every day, there are five flights from Hong Kong International Airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. It only takes travelers 2 hours and 40 minutes to arrive in Chengdu. When you are in Chengdu, you don’t have to worry about the flights to Lhasa because there are more than 11 flights in one day. It is a short flight for about 2 hours and 25 minutes from Chengdu to Lhasa. After arriving at Lhasa Gonggar Airport, you will get to Lhasa by a short van. The whole distance between the two places is about 60 kilometers. However, having no time to acclimatize to the high altitude is a shortcoming of this route. If travelers are worried about this problem, you can change other routes.

2.From Hong Kong to Guangzhou, then to Lhasa by Train

This route is a good choice for travelers who like taking a train. Travelers will take the train from Kowloon Station in Hong Kong to Guangzhou, and it takes travelers only 2 hours to arrive in Guangzhou. The whole distance is about 120 kilometers. Then, you can take a direct train to Lhasa. The train in Guangzhou departs at 11.45am, and it takes travelers about 53 hours to arrive in Lhasa. It will pass by some major cities in China, such as Wuhan, Xi’an, and Xining. If you are a senior or a child, you’d better not take this route because of the length of the train trip. There are two kinds of tickets. The one is the hard sleeper ticket with 18 compartments and 6 hard sleeper berths in each compartment. The price of the hard sleeper berth is about RMB 865. The other is the soft sleeper ticket with 12 compartments and 4 soft sleeper berths in each compartment. The price of the soft sleeper berth is about RMB 1468.

3. From Hong Kong to Chengdu, then to Lhasa by Train

Travelers can take flights to Chengdu, then take trains to Lhasa. It will take travelers about 45 hours to arrive in Lhasa from Hong Kong. Compared with taking a train in Guangzhou, this way takes more time. The price is lower than flight ticket, and the whole kilometers are about 3,000. When you arrive in Chengdu, you can stay for one day to have Chengdu Panda Research Base tour and see the pandas. Then you can take the direct train to Lhasa on Renmin North Road. The hard sleeper ticket with 18 compartments and 6 hard sleeper berths in each compartment costs about RMB 668. While the soft sleeper ticket with 12 compartments and 4 soft sleeper berths in each compartment costs about RMB 1062. It will take around 43 hours to get to Lhasa from Chengdu.

4. From Hong Kong to Chengdu, then from Xining to Lhasa

Travelers can take flights to Chengdu, fly to Xining, then take the train to Lhasa. It only takes travelers about 28 hours to arrive at the destination. And it only takes no more than 24 hours from Xining to Lhasa by train. This is a wonderful train tour because Xining is the start place of the Qinghai-Tibet railway. When arriving in Chengdu, you can visit the Chengdu Panda Research Base. While in Xining, you can visit many famous spots like the Dongguan Mosque and Ta'er Monastery.

This is a good way for travelers to adapt to the high altitude sickness because the average altitude of Xining is about 2,275 meters. What’s more, travelers are easy to book train tickets because Xining train is the longest train to Lhasa. The hard sleeper ticket costs about RMB 495. While the soft sleeper ticket costs about RMB 781.