Pre-trip: Train and Flight Ticket Booking

Train Ticket

In China, you could only book the train 20 days prior to your departure date. We wanted to take the train on 9 Sep, so we had to book our train tickets first and foremost before it was sold out.

On 22 Aug, we booked our train tickets for Xining - Lhasa with the help from Jeff's friend from this website (in Chinese).

Train No. T165
Type: Hard-sleeper (middle bed)
Price: 497 RMB
Route: Xining - Lhasa
Departure: 9 Sep @ 8:15 PM
Arrival: 10 Sep @ 8:15 PM

You will get a reservation code in SMS (ex: E123456789). To get the train ticket, you will need to go to the ticket service booth at the post office (or could be any train ticket agency center). Tell them the reservation code and pay the fee (usually 5-10 RMB). Don't forget to bring your passport. You could also go to the ticket booth at the train station. I guess you won't need to pay the fee in that case (not sure).

The couple booked the ticket with the travel agency. Their train T22 would leave Chengdu at 8:55 PM and arrive in Lhasa on 10 Sep at 4:40 PM. They got soft-sleeper for 1,300 RMB per person.

The guide and driver would be picking us up from the train station and take us to the hotel (which we didn't book yet).


Flight Ticket

Jeff and I were planning to arrive in Xining on Friday evening (6 Sep), but I couldn't find any reasonable flight ticket. In fact I found one from Shanghai to Xining, but I didn't book it soon enough. It was around 700 RMB and arrived on Friday evening like we planned. But only a few days later, the flight was all sold out T__T. I was really mad (at myself). In the end I had to book the flight from Hangzhou instead from Qunar website.

Flight No. 3U8821
Airline: Sichuan Airlines
Price: 1,049 RMB
Date: 6-Sep-2013
Route: Hangzhou - Xining (via Chongqing)
Departure: Xiaoshan Airport  8:20 AM
Arrival: Caojiabao Airport 1:35 PM

I decided to leave Hangzhou in the morning and arrive in Xining in the afternoon coz it would probably take me 2 hours getting the luggage, taking the bus to downtown Xining and heading to the hotel. I didn't want to arrive so late in the evening as I wanted to start slowly on the first day and get enough rest on the first night so that we could start early on the following morning (fresh start for the journey oh yeah!).

Jeff's flight would arrive in Xining around 9 PM. By the time he arrived at the hotel, it would be quite late already, but he said he was fine with lack of sleep, no problem.

For flight out from Lhasa on 24 Sep, we would decide again after we arrive in Lhasa. There seemed to be plenty of flights and the prices weren't much different.

We didn't book our return flight yet. Jeff was worried about the permit whether or not we would get it. He wanted to make sure that we got the permit first before booking the return ticket. We wanted to overland to Sichuan and probably fly from Chengdu (would be my third time going there). We would fly back on 6 Oct, so we had to hurry with the booking, otherwise the price would be more and more expensive.

Useful Links

Thanks to these amazing people who shared their stories and photos online (which inspired me to start writing this blog.. I know it's not easy). 

Personal Favorites:
Land of Snows: Amnye Machen, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan 
[Losang @LonelyPlanet. Enough said.]
Adventures of Jonas: Hitchhiking in Qinghai and Gansu
[Everything you need to know about Qinghai (Tibetan and Chinese place names included).]
China Nomads: Amnye Machen, Kanbula, Xining, and many more
[Awesome photos. Detailed trip information (Tibetan and Chinese place names included).]
Spinn Cafe: Tibet permit information and FAQs about Tibet tour
Jaunty Tom: Qinghai, Amnye Machen
[I was inspired to hitchhike in Qinghai after reading his blog.]
The Road Less Travelled By: Chengdu overland to Xining 
[Detailed guesthouse and bus information with photo albums.]

Trekking Thai Forum (in Thai):
Rook
Bandadan
Cybock
Cobain >> I followed him to Yading, Yubeng, Jiuzhaigou, Meili Xueshan, Yihun Lhatso. 

Pix Pros (in Thai): >> Amazing Mount Kailash photos
http://www.pixpros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=69204
http://www.pixpros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=68563

Other Resourceful Blogs:
Drogann1te: Xining, Tongren, Xiahe
Ciku-cikudoeschina: Xining, Qinghai Lake
Bruno and Iohi's Journey Diary: Amnye Machen
Rusty's Travel Blog: Mount Kailash
A Soul Journey to the Qinghai: Chaka Salt Lake, Qinghai Lake
To Go Back: Kanbula
Dan and Ami: Kanbula
Johnjemi: Kanbula
STEPHANIE AND MIKE'S SUMMER ADVENTURE: Kanbula
The Hegira of Jess & Luke: Train experience
GAP YAHHHHH TRAVELS: Chengdu overland to Xining
Around China: Kekexili on motorcycle!
Kekexili (in Chinese)

Mafengwo (in Chinese):
http://www.mafengwo.cn/i/1356060.html
http://www.mafengwo.cn/i/643918.html
http://www.mafengwo.cn/i/819453.html
http://www.mafengwo.cn/group/info.php?iid=825046&page=1
Note: I cannot read Chinese so I use Google Translate.

Lonely Planet Forum:
What is the longest time one can stay around Mt. Kailash?
Kanbula Forest Park - Place to stay
Qinghai province advice
Yushu (Jyekundo) - Qinghai province
Chengdu to Xining

Travel Agency:
Tibet Highland Tours >> We booked Tibet tour with TBT. Our guide and driver were incredibly awesome!
Snow Lion Tours: Tibet Tour (Tibetan-owned agency)
Snow Jewel: Tibet Tour (experienced Swiss guide in Nepal) 

Useful Links:
Wikitravel >> My main source for trip research. I'm not a big fan of paid guidebooks.
Yowangdu: Tibetan Culture and information about traveling in Tibet
Travel China Guide: Train schedule and ticket service
Elong: China flight ticket service in English
Qunar: China flight ticket service in Chinese (cheap)
ForeignerCN: Traveling in Qinghai
Bus Station in Qinghai

Pre-trip: Transportation

The Latvia couple would fly from Europe to Chengdu and spend a couple of days traveling near Chengdu (which I recommended them to go to Emei Shan and Leshan). Then they would take a train from Chengdu on 8 Sep and arrive in Lhasa on 10 Sep. It would take them 2 days on the train ride. Then, they would fly out from Lhasa to Chengdu on 24 Sep and fly back to Europe on 25 Sep.

If you choose to fly in to Lhasa, the original Tibet permit is required. If you go in by train, a copy of the permit is fine. It takes 15-20 days to issue the permit. In case we chose to fly in, we would have to pay another 180 RMB for the agency to mail us the original Tibet permit before our departure date. I didn't know why it was so expensive. Perhaps they had to send it via express service.

I discussed with Jeff about the train. He was actually planning to take the train from Beijing to Lhasa which would take 3 days. According to Yowangdu website, the elevation in Beijing and even in Chengdu would be too low for us to acclimatize. I suggested that we should fly to Xining a few days earlier and travel around Xining before taking a train from Xining on 9 Sep and then arrive in Lhasa on 10 Sep. 

I was concerned about the train ticket. From what I read, it was difficult to get one and in some cases, the price was really expensive. The couple asked us whether we wanted the travel agency to buy the train ticket for us. Jeff said that we should be able to book the train ticket from the website on our own and it would be a lot cheaper.

The travel agency asked us for the dates that we were going to enter and leave Lhasa and also the transportation mode (train or plane). They had to put the information in the permit. We decided to arrive in Lhasa by train (from Xining) on 10 Sep and leave Lhasa on 24 Sep by plane. 

At first, I even thought about flying from Lhasa to Xi'an, going to the Terracotta Army site and hiking to Huashan and then taking the train back to Hangzhou. While Jeff was planning to fly from Lhasa to Chengdu perhaps on the same flight with the couple and then travel around Chengdu. He was thinking about going to Emei Shan or Jiuzhaigou (which I already went to both places and they were awesome!). After discussing with Jeff, we thought about spending a couple of days traveling in Qinghai before coming back home on 29 Sep. So, our rough plan went like this...

6 Sep (evening): arrive in Xining 
7-9 Sep: travel around Xining
9 Sep (evening): take train to Lhasa
10 Sep: arrive in Lhasa
11-23 Sep: go with the tour in Tibet
24 Sep: fly out of Lhasa to somewhere
25-29 Sep: travel around Qinghai
29 Sep (evening): fly back to Hangzhou

Qinghai was never in my to-go list. My main destinations in China were Yunnan (went there twice), Sichuan (went there twice), and Xinjiang (never been there). I never heard anything about Qinghai before. "Where could we go in Qinghai?", I asked myself.

Pre-trip: Acclimatization

At first, I was planning to fly from Hangzhou to Lhasa directly to save time as I didn't want to waste my precious (and limited) vacation leave. Jeff suggested that for better acclimatization, we'd better take train to Lhasa. Actually, I didn't think about acclimatization before. I was able to adapt to the high altitude quite well in my previous trip to Yading in 2011. The highest point we went were at 4800 m. I didn't have any trouble there except from short of breath due to the low density of oxygen which was quite common in high altitude. After Jeff mentioned about acclimatization, I began to get real worried.

I asked my friend who went to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal last year whether she was having any trouble with the high altitude. She said everyone in the trip was okay except her. She vomited once or twice. This same friend went to Yading with me and she also vomited badly last time. Later, I looked up the elevation of Kathmandu and all the places we had to go through in this trip in Wikipedia. And I was shocked...

Elevation
Kathmandu = 1400 m
Lhasa = 3490 m 
Everest Base Camp = 5200 m
Namtso Lake = 4718 m
Dolma La Pass (during Kailash Kora) = 5636 m

I also asked another friend who just came back from Lhasa a week ago. She went there doing news reporting (and didn't have to pay anything.. lucky her!!). She flew from Beijing to Lhasa. She said she got serious problems with the high altitude. She almost fainted on the first day that she arrived at the airport. She also had a headache every day and couldn't sleep well at night. It was very cold. Her lips were shaking constantly. The air was thin. Also, the sunlight was strong up there. She told me to bring lots of sunscreen. She said that her colleague who went with her was even worse. He had to use oxygen bottle. In the end, he didn't get enough oxygen and developed lung infection. After chatting with her, I also officially developed a panic attack.

I read a post in Yowangdu website about flying to Xining, spending a couple of days there to acclimatize and then taking a train from Xining to Lhasa. Though, it would take me additional 3-4 days in Xining and around, it would better guarantee that I would arrive in Lhasa in a well-acclimatized condition and decrease the chance of getting high altitude sickness. I wanted to fully enjoy this trip in the healthiest condition of mine. Taking the train to Lhasa seemed to be the smartest option in this case.