Day 1：Arrive in Lhasa.

When you arrive in Lhasa (3700m), your local Tibetan guide and driver will bring you to hotel and rest at hotel for acclimatization.

In the morning, your guide will bring you to visit the huge and magnificent complex of ancient buildings, breathtaking Potala Palace, which is the winter palace of the Dalai Lama, built in the 17th century by the fifth Dalai Lama. After that, we explore the Jokhang Temple, the most sacred monastery in Tibet, and the surrounding Barkhor bazaar, the bustling Lhasa market.

Day 3: visit Drepung Monastery in the morning and Sera Monastery in the afternoon.

In the morning, we go to explore the expansive Drepung Monastery which is the largest monastery in Tibet and the home monastery to all Dalai Lamas. We go to Sera Monastery to watch the special monks’ debate In the afternoon, the Monastery has a rich collection of cultural relics and a silk tangkha painting of Sakya Yeshe.

On this day, we drive to Yamdrok Lake as the first stop of the day, the sparkling turquoise lake, for photos. Yamdrok Lake is located at the Nangartse County of Shannan Region some 110 kilometers to the southwest of Lhasa, and it is the largest inland lake on the northern range of the Himalayas. After that, on the way to Gyantse we cross Kampa-la (5050 m) and Karo-la Pass (5045 m) to view the Mt. Nojin Kangtsen Glacier falling down near the road. When we arrive at Gyantse (3950m), we will visit the Pelkor Chode Monastery. Also, we will also visit the Gyantse Dzong (fort) overlooking Gyangste.

After we depart Shigatse and drive the Northern Route along the Yarlung Tsangpo River and from Traduka change roads to Shug-la pass and see the beautiful valleys, villages and mountains. From Shug-la pass, we will bring you to Yangpachen, where you can relax in the natural geothermal hot spring pool. After that, drive to Namtso, and on the way to Namtso Lake, you will see Mt. Tanggu la (7500m) and drive through grasslands to the holy lake. Stay a night at Namsto.

In the morning, you will see the stunning sun rise over the holy lake (Namsto Lake). After breakfast, we drive you back to Lhasa. On the way back to Lhasa, you will reach Yangpachen where you can relax in the natural geothermal hot spring pool. (Optional, bath fee does not include in your tour package).

On the final day, yourdriver and guide will see you to Lhasa train station or airport.

Please see the detail information about what are included in this tour package:

This tour package includes all of your Tibet Entry Permits which you need for traveling around Tibet (Tibet Permits).

Transportation

Transfer fee: transfer fee from airport or train station to Lhasa and from Lhasa to airport or train station (land cruiser or mini bus),and transfer fee of traveling to the places which are listed in your itinerary.

Admission fee:admission fee of all tourist sites which are listed in your itinerary.

Tour guide: English speaking local Tibetan guide with national guide license.

Hotels: clean and comfortable 3 star hotel with sharing twin room accommodation when your stay in Lhasa,Shanna, Shigatse and hotels in other places list in the itinerary (The conditions of hotels in some remote places, such as Sakya, Everest Base Camp, Tingri, and Zhangmu are not as good as hotels in some major cities of Tibet.

Our agency service charge:salary of driver, tour guide, vehicle.

Oxygen:supplied in your car and mineral water.

Meals:breakfast is included in your tour package.

Travel insurance:please be aware that travel insurance in here is very limited. Hence, our agency highly recommends our customers buy their travel insurance in their own countries before you come to Tibet, and most of tourists also do so.

Please see the detail information about what are excluded in this tour package:

International Travel Insurance:International Travel Insurance is not included in our tour package (we highly recommend you to buy international travel insurance which covers tour cancellation & emergency evacuation from your own country before you come to Tibet since the Tourist Accident & Casualty insurance which provided by travel agency in here is very limited.

Meals: Lunch and dinner are not included in your tour package.

Flight and train tickets: the costs of Flight and train tickets are not included in your tour package.

Potala Palace:Potala Palace is located on the Red Hill in the northwest of Lhasa. And it is a famous architectural complex made up of palaces, castles and temples which are the essence of Tibetan ancient architectural art.The Potala Palace was built in the seventh century. A palace of 999 rooms, it was built at an altitude of over 3,700 meters on the Red Hill of Lhasa. The palace, which was built on the hill, now covers 410,000 square meters and its architecture area is 130,000 square kilometers. The main building of the palace has 13 floors and is 115 meters high. It is all stone-wood structure. All the five roofs of palace are covered by gold-plating brasses tiles. It is the essence of Tibetan ancient architecture art.The main structure of Potala Palace is the White Palace and the Red Palace. The White Palace is the Winter Palace of Dalai Lama. It also used to be the past Tibet local government office. There are seven storeys in this building. Tsoqinsha Hall is located on the centre of the fourth floor. It is the largest palace in the Potala Palace White House, whose area is 717 square meters. And it is the place to hold important religious and political activities such as Dalai Lama enthrones and attends grand ceremonies. Rooms on the fifth and sixth floors are for the regent to work and live. The seventh floor, on the top of the White Palace, has two living rooms for Dalai Lama during the winter. Because of the sunny weather all day, they are called East Sunlight Hall and West Sunlight Hall, respectively. The Red Palace, mainly consisting of the chapels for Dalai Lamas’ stupas and all kinds of Buddhist chapels, contains eight stupas which keep the relics of past Dalai Lamas. Among them, the stupa for fifth Dalai Lama is the biggest. In the west is great west hall, the memorial hall of the stupa for fifth Dalai Lama Hall. It is also the biggest hall in the Potala Palace, which covers an area of 725 square meters and there are all frescoes on its inner walls. The thirteenth Dalai Lama’s tomb stupa temple is the latest building in the Potala Palace, which starting in 1933, costing 3 years to be built. During more than 1,300 years, the Potala Palace has collected extremely rich historical and cultural relics and kept them in storage. Among them, there are murals of more than 2,500 square meters, nearly a thousand stupas, tens of thousands of statues and Thangkha (scroll paintings); also, there are valuable scriptures collections like Pattra-leaf scriptures and Kangyur via; There are numerous and various cultural relics, including golden books, golden and jade seals, porcelains, enamels, brocades, crafts, and gold, silver and jade articles.In addition, there are wall paintings on all walls of the palace, Buddhist prayer rooms and passages of the Potala Palace and various relief sculptures around there. Most of the murals and sculptures are bright and colorful, which are mainly themed by plateau scenery, historical tales, stories of Buddhism and construction scenes of the Potala Palace, etc. And they are of highly historical and artistic values.

Jokhang temple:The Jokhang temple was founded in 647. After generations of repair and build-out, it is now a huge building group. The temple has an area of more than 25,100 square metersand has over twenty palaces. The main sanctuary is 4-storey high with gold plating copper tile roof, which shows the architectural style and drawn the architecture feature from Nepal, Indian and Tang Dynasty as well. In the middle of the hall, there is a gold-plated statue with the same figure of 12-year-old Shakyamuni which was brought by Princess Wencheng from Changan. On both wings of the palace are enshrined the statues of Songtsen Gampo, Princess Wenchengand sPrincess Bhrikuti and other statues.

Sera Monastery:Sera Monastery is one of three famous monasteries in Tibet along with the Drepung Monastery and the Ganden Monastery. It is the latest built building among three Monasteries. The Sera Monastery, located at the foot of Tatipu Hill in the northern suburb of Lhasa City, is one of the three major monasteries of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It was built in 1419, the monastery means “Wild Rose Monastery” in Tibetan language. There is a main hall, three Dratsang (college) and 29 khumtsen (dormitory of monks). There are over 5,500 monks at most. The monastery still keeps over ten thousand of vajra Buddha, most of which are made locally in Tibet. Many of them are copper statue of Buddha brought from mainland or India. Main hall and walls of other monk dormitories and chapels maintain a lot of original color murals. There are Jie,Me, and Nga-pa three scripture halls and colleges. Sera Je College is the largest college where the monks study the Sutras. Sera Me College is the next largest college, where the monks study medicine. The third college is Sera Ngag-pa College, the Tantric College. There are more than 9,000 Buddhist monksin that temple during the golden age. Sera Monastery did not suffer from serious destruction in her history.

Drepung Monastery:Drepung Located on the mountain of Gephel Wutse at the west suburb of Lhasa, Drepung Monastery is one of the three greatest monastery of Gelug Sect, and the biggest monastery in Tibet. Covering an area of about 200, 000 square meters, and the grand monastery which once contained more than 10 thousand monks is composed of white buildings arranged in close order, looking like a huge rice pile, so it is named Drepung. Drepung means “Mound of Rice” in Tibetan language, a symbol of prosperity. The Drepung Monastery was founded in 1416 AD by a disciple of Tsongkhapa named Jamyang Choje. Tsongkhapa once personally presided the consecration ceremony there. When firstly built, the temple was very small, with only a small hall covering an area of dozen square meters and 7 monks. During the first half of the seventeenth century, Fifth Dalai lama expanded the temple, which was finally developed into seven Dratsang. The major architectures of Drepung Monastery are the Tsoqen Hall, four colleges, Ganden Podrang and 50 Khumtsen. The Tsoqen Hall, among them, is a place for all monks to congregate to chant and perform ceremonies. Incorporated from seven Dratsang, four colleges include Gomang, Roscelin, Deyang and Ngagpa Dratsang; Before the Potala Palace was rebuilt, Ganden Podrang is the bedroom for Dalai Lama in the Drepung Monastery. As a rule, these colleges would house a total of about 800 monks. In the past, 10,000 monks were living at Drepung. Fifth Dalai Lama has been living here since he took power of government and religion in Tibet. During the Sholton Festival, the Drepung Monastery will hold a large exhibition of Buddha which exerts a wide influence.