Train journey to Lhasa (with a stopover in X'ian)

Travelers intending to take a train in China must be quite tough. Such a trip is worth the experience and I can wholeheartedly recommend the adventure, but you shouldn't be squeamish. We were a group of six good friends and couples, and thus able to travel through Tibet alone as our own small travel group. This gave us the greatest flexibility and freedom... it couldn't have been better if it weren't for the difficult process of obtaining the Tibet permits.

In Germany, we already had difficulties with the Chinese visa, as we wanted to fly into Beijing and return to good old Germany from Kathmandu. It took the clever Chinese embassy just a fraction of a second to figure us out...'aha, these foreigners want to go to Tibet, I'll make it as difficult as possible for them'. Mathias went to the embassy three times, each time coming back empty-handed. On the fourth time, he had a contract for a trip to China in his luggage, which was completely made up - issued by our Chinese Tibet tour operator, stamped by the Chinese Tourism Authority. That's how the game is played... and how fast he could run all of a sudden! Within a few days, we had our visa. Now the anxious wait for our Tibet permits began!!! Just before our departure, it still hadn't arrived, but our organizer, Tibet Vista, reassured us....36 hours before our departure, the most important document finally arrived in our email inbox and just needed to be printed in color. Now we were allowed to enter the Tibet Autonomous Region with Chinese permission!

On our departure day from Beijing, due to nervousness, we went to the Western Railway Station four hours before the actual train departure. We had never seen such a gigantic train station before. People were running back and forth like ants, the entire complex was huge, resembling an airport in many ways, but...damn---where were the ticket counters? We split into two groups, one group guarding the luggage, the others fighting for the tickets. The ticket hall alone had 24 counters, with only one speaking English! We spent a whole hour in line, then our permit was inspected, signatures and stamps admired, and in the end, we were handed the long-awaited tickets from Beijing to X'ian and from X'ian to Lhasa.

The first hurdle was overcome and the next three hours in the waiting hall were quite fun. The toilets, like in all of China, left much to be desired, but it would turn out that they were still good...the train to Lhasa was lovingly called the 'Poo Caterpillar' by us during the trip.

You wait in huge waiting halls and only when the train has arrived are you allowed onto the platform. So you should have your things well organized and familiarize yourself with the ticket so that you don't spend too much time looking for your compartment in the end. Considering the length of the train journey, we opted for four-person compartments with a door. The six-person compartments are all open, meaning the noise level is accordingly. Since the Chinese appreciate and indulge in nice customs such as burping, coughing, spitting, blowing their noses, and smoking (especially where you are not supposed to), I was not ungrateful for the mini-luxury. The train to X'ian was quite modern with a fancy touch and still quite clean. We were satisfied, had a little beer, and swayed through the night. The girls were in the four-person compartment, the men spread out to other compartments.

We arrived in X'ian at 6:00 in the morning. At the exit, you have to show your train ticket again, so that every passenger is checked to have a valid ticket.

On the way out, to our minivan that was supposed to take us to the Terracotta Army, a Chinese woman tried to snatch my ticket from my hand. She was so rough that I actually had to hit her with my daypack to save the ticket....the lady was shocked and I was pretty pleased :-) even though I'm not usually that quick-witted.

We spent the day at the Terracotta Army and on the city wall of X'ian. Here are some impressions of a truly impressive experience.

And here are some pictures of the city wall in X'ian, where you can walk 14 km around the 'old town', really great - unfortunately, we had smog that day and the afternoon pictures are all grayscale and smoky

We stayed at YHA in X'ian, a hostel that I can highly recommend. Clean, spacious rooms and nice bathrooms, and a free dumpling party.

In the evening, we were called to the reception at 10:00 pm. A Chinese woman had left an envelope for us. I wonder what was inside?????

We collected the original Tibet permits with their elaborate seal wax and stickers, including a brief instruction...oh man, our knees went weak! We had felt so good and secure, thinking our copies were enough!

The next morning, we were more than generous before the train departure. The conductor of our compartment admired our permit, then handed it to the next higher-ranking official, adorned with tinsel, who then gave the permit to the next important-looking person.

Long story short, we were allowed on the train and for the next 36 hours, we were actually the only non-Chinese tourists on our way to 'the land of snows'. At the end of our tour through Tibet, we realized that we were pretty much the only Western tourists. We occasionally ran into a few Austrians, but that was about it.

apparently clean at first glance

what the Chinese prefer to do on the carpet - a bad habit.

The Shanghai Lhasa train had already been running for 14 hours, and all public areas were no longer accessible. In the train restaurant, the railway staff lounged, smoked despite the smoking ban, and ended up drunkenly dancing the conga line through the train. We were glad that our four-person compartment had been locked, the men shared the train with two lovely girls who took care of the Langnasens' culinary needs.

The toilets were divided into Western style and latrine style. We learned to appreciate the advantages of the latrine...roll up your pants, don't touch anything, close your eyes and go through.

The Western style toilets were so disgusting...there was water, urine, and food scraps floating around...the poop (sorry for the harsh words) was floating in the sink, I will always wonder how it got there, I strongly suspect that the children were put on the sink. While the mostly female train employees cleaned and took care of the guests on the way to X'ian, the gentlemen of creation were busy drinking, smoking, and dancing the conga line...and still 36 hours to Lhasa.

Initially, we enjoyed the Chinese province with a view from the train, culinary options were noodle soups, noodle soups, noodle soups....beef jerky or instant porridge. Well, it didn't taste good, but it was enough to survive.

Here are some impressions from the train, all still in China

The train rocked through Xining towards the Tibetan border. We made ourselves at home, only the trip to the toilet became more and more of a challenge and we dreaded the high altitude because we had to drink more to prevent altitude sickness...what prospects!

The only highlight that afternoon was the forever hot water bubbling from a dispenser, supplying us with instant soups, Nescafe, and porridge.

The men tried a chicken dish from the train restaurant, with questionable results. Friend Ralf... added to the disgusting rest the next morning after seeing the toilets.

In the middle of the night, we crossed the border and found ourselves on the plateau. Oxygen was pumped into the compartment from around 4:00 in the morning, we were at high altitudes of up to 5400m. Overall, the six of us coped quite well with the altitude, only friend Mona sat under the nozzles to use the oxygen supply optimally.

Tibetan villages along the railway of the Lhasa railway aka Sky Train 

Sunrise at 10:00 am!

The train was equipped with altimeters and pressure gauges, presumably regulating the oxygen supply. If the train hadn't been so dirty, I would have taken my hat off

The oppression by the Chinese was very quickly noticeable even to us laypeople. For example, there is only one time zone, which means that the sun only rises late in Tibet...the further west, the later. Or the story with the flags on the houses. Each family receives a flag from the government when they move in, and if the flag is not put up on the roof, the Tibetans have to pay a hefty fine

The magnificent nature on the plateau made up for the full bladder, the lack of oxygen, and the occasional weak stomach in the morning. We still had about 12 hours of train journey ahead of us, which I mostly spent by the window.

The day still dragged on, at some point you just want to get out. We went in search of usable toilets - no luck, the four-person compartments and the soft seats looked very bad. The train staff slept off their hangovers.

We were only compensated by nature, the train doesn't have beautiful nicknames like the Sky Train or Train Above the Clouds for nothing - for me, it's just the Lhasa train.

typical residential building

In the early evening, we made it, the train rolled through the new suburbs of Lhasa. We were quite surprised when we saw the 30-story residential buildings and concrete deserts. Unfortunately, Lhasa (only Potala, Barkhor, and Johkang) does not have UNESCO status because while the old town is beautiful, the overall appearance is very Chinese.

At Lhasa railway station, as soon as we handed in our tickets, we were immediately separated and taken to a nearby building. There, we were recorded for identification purposes. It felt strange...it reminded me of when I traveled to the GDR as a West German!

Thankfully, Tenzing, our guide, who was waiting for us with white scarves at the reception, took away that stupid feeling. Tenzing, a kind Tibetan guide, would be our companion for the next few days... our first thought was 'Thank goodness, not a red Chinese'. Tenzing did a great job in the next few days, more on that in the next report.

Welcome to Lhasa