10 DAYS LHASA SHOTON FESTIVAL TOUR TO EVEREST BASE CAMP AND NAMTSO LAKE

Welcome to Lhasa! Upon your arrival at Gonggar airport or Lhasa Railway Station, your professional Tibetan guide will meet you right in the hall on time, with your name sign. Then a comfortable private car and experienced driver will take you to Lhasa hotel safely. It is about 65km from the airport to Lhasa city and takes less than an hour through the Airport Expressway. It is only 25km from the railway station and takes about half an hour. After arriving at hotel, tour guide will help you check in. You can take a rest and get acclimatized to high altitude.

In the very early morning, your guide and driver will pick you up from hotel, and drive to Drepung Monastery to attend the Shoton Festival ceremony. With thousands of local pilgrims and tourists, you will luckily see one of the largest embroidered Thangka/scroll painting of Buddha in Tibet. Hundreds of monks and volunteers transfer it to a hillside not far from the monastery and display on a huge wall then the monks perform a special religious ritual to open the ceremony, the pilgrims from nomadic area offer fresh Yak Yogurt to the monks and everyone receives blessings from main master of monastery. In the afternoon, you will go to Norbulinka Park and see how people enjoy their festival. You will have a great chance to watch the performance of traditional Tibetan opera, join the very friendly local people, their hospitality towards you makes you feel like very close friends, they will serve you free cookies, Yak meat or yogurt sometimes and plenty of their homemade barley beer if you like it. You will also visit the main residence of the successive Dalai Lamas’ personal residences, guest interview room, meeting rooms, the wall of paintings that tells the general history of Tibet and ancient civilization as well as its unique architectural design and wooden carves.

After breakfast, your tour guide & driver will pick you and drive to visit the splendid Potala Palace, which is Lhasa’s cardinal landmarks. You will have a whole morning to explore this world-level architectural works: White Palace, Red Palace, corridors and stairs and countless lama’s dormitory. Others include: Buddha statues, red-robed lamas and devoted, murals, etc. In the afternoon, you will walk to visit the age-old Jokhang Temple, as the spiritual center of Tibet, which will deeply impress you with its magnificence and sincere pilgrims. You will see pilgrims donating butter oil to keep the lights burning for the Buddha; learning Tibetan Buddhism; hearing the red-robed Lamas praying; taking photos of the gold roof and enjoying the beautiful sunshine of Lhasa. Finally, you will have a relaxing walk around Jokhang Temple at Barkhor Street, which is the oldest street in Lhasa, and full of religious atmosphere, showcasing Tibetan culture, economy, religion and arts assemble. Then transfer back to the hotel.

On leaving the Tibetan capital, we will first drive southwest towards the beauty of Lake Yamdrok taking the winding road up to the crest of the Gampa La pass at 4794 meters. From the pass you get the first glimpse of the beauty of Lake Yamdrok below ringed by snowy mountain peaks and stretching out across the whole landscape before you. In the distance the holy Mount Nyenchen Khangsar stands tall in the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountain Range. We will drop down to the lake shore for a closer look before continuing on to Nagartse for a delicious local lunch. On the way to Gyantse, after lunch, we cross over the pass at Karo La (5159m) where we can view the beautiful glacier that falls from the slopes of Mount Nyenchen Khangsar. In Gyantse we will stop at the Pelkor Chode Monastery to explore both the monastery and the outstanding 32-meter stupa that is the highlight of the day. Known as the Kumbum Stupa this one-of-a-kind stupa has nine floors and 108 chapels which contain thousands of images and statues throughout. Then we will continue on in the late afternoon to reach Shigatse before nightfall.

In the morning, we will visit the home of Panchan Lama - Tashilunpo Monastery. Then, we’ll leave Shigatse after getting your Alien’s travel permit, and then drive direct to the base Camp of Mount Everest near the Rongbuk Monastery. The route takes us over several high passes and the first outstanding view you will see is from the Gyatso La pass at 5400 meters. From the viewpoint at the crest of the pass you can see Mount Everest standing tall in the distance. At Old Tingri we will turn off the Friendship Highway and take the Zhufeng Road over the Gawu La Pass (5250m) from which you get an amazing view of the Himalayan panorama. The view of the peaks includes several mountains above 8000 meters including Mount Everest (8848m) Mt. Lhotse (8516m) Mt. Makalu (8463m) Mt. Shishapangma (8020m) and Mt. Cho Oyu (8201m). On our arrival at the Rongbuk Monastery we will first check into the tent guesthouse or Rongbuk Monastery Guesthouse depending on the time of year. The tent guesthouses are not available in the winter months from November to March and are sometimes full in the peak months of summer. After a light lunch we will get time to explore the famous Rongbuk Monastery the official highest Buddhist monastery in the world. Housing both monks and nuns the monastery was a regular stopping point for explorers heading for Mount Everest in the early days after it was first discovered.

After a pleasant night at the base camp or monastery guesthouse, we can rise early to get the best view of the sunrise on the eastern sloped of Mount Everest. The hill behind the monastery is the best spot for good early-morning photos of the mountain. Then it is time to say goodbye to the world’s highest mountain as we pack up and prepare to drive back to Shigatse.

After breakfast we will spend the first part of the morning touring around the famous Tashilhunpo Monastery the seat of the Panchen Lama before heading off along the Friendship Highway towards Lhasa. Built in 1447 by the first Dalai Lama, the monastery is now the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama Tibet’s second highest religious incarnation. There you will be able to see the tombs of 7 Panchen Lamas explore the twisting cobbled streets and get a peek into monastic life. On the rout drive back to Lhasa by following Yalong Valley, you can stand on the viewing platform and view the vast Yalong River bed. Finally the guide will transfer you back to your hotels in Lhasa.

After breakfast, we drive from Lhasa to Lake Namtso, one of the three holy lakes of Tibet and also the highest saline lake in the world. On the way, you can see snow-capped Nyenchen Thanglha Mountain Ranges and lots of nomads and their tent with grazing yak and sheep densely-populated on the flourishing grassland in summer. Besides, you can enjoy the view of Sky-Road Railway with snow mountain background; while standing at the famous Nagenla Pass(5190m), you can view the stunning overlooking of sacred Namtso Lake. Then we can enjoy our time to do a leisurely trek along the lakeshore. Drive back to hotel at Dumxung or Yampachen.

Drive to Yampanchen and enjoy the natural hot spring bath in here. The famous Yangpachen lies on the southern slope of the Nyenchen Tangula Mountains and is famous for its geothermal scenery. Every year, Yangpachen Hot Spring emits heat equal to that of 4.7 million tons of standard coal. Lying in a plateau basin, Yangpachen’s geothermal field covers 40 square km. To take advantage of geothermal field, resorts were built in here, giving tourists a chance to enjoy the outdoor natural hot spring spa. Then drive back to Lhasa.

Today is free for you until you are escorted to the airport or railway station for departure and the guide will help you get on board.