Day 1 Arrival in Xining

Your local guide and driver will wait for you at the Xining train station or airport and take you to the hotel. Have a relaxing time in the rest of the day.

Day 2 Qinghai Lake

After breakfast, we will drive for the Qinghai Lake, which takes about 3 hours. Located in the northeast Qinghai - Tibet Plateau, between Datong Mountain, Riyue Mountain, and Nanshan Mountain, Qinghai Lake is the largest salt lake in China. As three mountains surround the lake and there is no outlet to the sea, Qinghai Lake is also the largest interior lake. It’s famous for landscapes of plateau lake, prairie, snow-capped mountain, and desert. The shortage of oxygen, the sufficiency of salt, and the rarity of plankton make the Qinghai Lake extremely crystal and blue. It’s very common to see yaks and cattle roaming around, herds of sheep grazing grass, swarms of birds flying around, lush grass swaying with wind and fish playing in the lake. We highly recommend a boat ride on the tranquil lake.




In the afternoon, we will drive back to Xining.






   

Day 3 Kumbum Monastery, Train to Lhasa

After breakfast, we will head for the Kumbum Monastery. Located in the Lianhua Mountain, Kumbum Monastery is the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Tibetan Gelug Sect, and one of the most famous Gelug monasteries. Since its building, the monastery has established a separate system of religion, politics, economics, and culture. One event can better illustrate the organizational perfection of the monastery - the Temple Fair. During the occasion, monks will come to communication and entertain. The whole monastery is magnificent and full of treasures. You will find a lot of Buddhist halls, statutes, Buddhist scriptures, classics of history, literature, philosophy, medicine, and legislation.




After lunch, you will depart for the Qinghai Railway Station and take the train to Lhasa. The journey will take about 22 hours, during which you will have beautiful scenery of glaciers, snow-capped mountains, prairies, wild animals, nomad houses, and vast grassland.





    

Day 4 Arrival in Lhasa

By the early afternoon, you will arrive at Lhasa Railway Station, where your local driver and guide will be ready to take you to the hotel. We suggest you take the rest of the day to acclimatize the altitude and climate and get some rest.

Day 5 Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Barhkor Street

Your Lhasa exploration starts officially from this morning. The first stop will be the first highlight of the tour - the iconic Potala Palace. Sure, you might have seen it elsewhere, but today, you will ascend the lofty building and unveil the interior mysteries. One thing to remind you, you can’t take photos inside the palace. The Potala Palace was a work of a Tubo King Songtsen Gampo in the 7th century. It was like a wedding gift to the Tang Dynasty princess Wencheng when she married the Tibetan King. When the Tubo dynasty declined, the palace was destitute for a long time until the mid-17th century, when the Fifth Dala Lama established the Galdan Phobrang regime and resumed the palace. Since then, the Potala Palace became the winter palace for later Dalai Lamas. After all these centuries, the palace has collected tons of treasures and Buddhist relics.







    






In the afternoon, we will head for the Jokhang Temple, another masterpiece from Tubo King Songtsen Gampo. It’s one of the most sacred places in Tibet. You will see many Buddhist disciples practice worship in the temple. What makes the temple even more famous is the magnificent building. You will see it’s a wooden building with traditional Tibetan, Chinese, Nepalese, and Indian architectural marks.



The last stop today is Barhkor Street, which is just outside the Jokhang Temple. Many Tibetan Buddhist disciples with revolving prayer wheels in their hands make their pilgrimage clockwise around the Jokhang Temple. It’s striking to see local people so devout and reverent. Of course, you will also see a lot of local specialties, arts, crafts, and souvenirs.

Your day tour comes to an end by now. Your guide and driver will escort you back to your hotel.

Day 6 Norbulingka, Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery

After breakfast, we will soak up in the fresh morning air of the Norbulingka, the summer palace of Dalai Lamas. It’s the largest artificial garden in Tibet and a place with rich historical stories and amazing landscapes, making it a fantastic place for leisure. It’s now turned into a park where you will see a lot of stores and shops.

Next, we will leave for the Drepung Monastery. “Drepung” in Tibetan means “rice piles," symbolizing prosperity. The monastery is also the largest one in Tibet and one of the three most important monasteries of Gelug Sect. It has cultivated a lot of Buddhist masters for Tibet. To visit the monastery, you have to trace along the mountain road, which can be energy-consuming. Please be prepared.




At last, we will pay a visit to the Sera Monastery, another prestigious Gelug monastery. The name “Sera” came from the fact that there are a vast expanse of rosewood on the mountain on which the monastery was built. Every afternoon, the monastery will organize a big meeting where monks debate over the Buddhist scriptures, which can be intriguing to observe.






    

Day 7 Ganden Monastery and Drak Yerpa Meditation Caves

After breakfast, you will leave for the Ganden Monastery, a special monastery built by the originator of Gelug Sect Tsongkhapa in 1409. People regard it as the ancestor temple of the monasteries of Gelug Sect. Inside the monastery, you will find a lot of murals, statues, and relics, golds and jewelries granted by Emperor Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, armour with Han, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan characters, Su embroideries, cushions which belonged to masters of Gelug Sect, and 24 sets of Thangka gifted by Emperor Yongle from Ming Dynasty. All these priceless relics show the long history and high religious position of the monastery. On October 25 in Tibetan calendar, the death anniversary of Tsongkhapa, people will hang a 26-meter-long, 10-meter-wide silk Buddha in the daytime and burn all candles at night.

In the afternoon, we will visit the Drak Yerpa Meditation Caves, one of the famous hermitages. It was one of the meditation temples built by Songtsen Gampo for his Tibetan wife. The most significant characteristic of the place is that the Drak Yerpa Monastery is inset between cliffs, and most of the buildings are built upon caves. Surrounding the caves are towering pines, cypresses, flowers and brooks. Inside the monastery, you will find the renovated Buddha statues and statues of Songtsen Gampo and his wives.




    

Day 8 Lhasa Departure

Your Tibet discovery ends here. Your local guide and driver will take you to the airport.