9 Days Classic Shanghai Lhasa and Namtso Tour

Welcome to Shanghai! Upon your arrival, your tour guide will meet you and escort you to your hotel. The rest of the day is for you to have a good rest or explore the surroundings on your own.

Stay overnight in Shanghai.

Today, you will explore this classic and modern city of Shanghai. We will start with the fascinating Yu Garden, the original private residence of a senior Government administration in the Ming Dynasty. Neighboring to the Yu Garden, there is a lively market called Yuyuan Bazaar, where you can shop some specialties. Then we will move to Shanghai World Financial Center, the supertall skyscraper equipped with the highest sightseeing platform in the world.

In the afternoon, we will head to the renowned pedestrian street of Nanjing Road to take a nice stroll. You can enjoy the local snacks or shop some handicrafts and souvenirs, while appreciating those distinctive architecture. After that, we will enjoy another stroll along the Bund, where you will get amazed by the spectacular view of Huangpu River and dazzling light from buildings of Pudong.

Stay overnight in Shanghai.

Today, we are going to visit Zhujiajiao Ancient Town, which is about 1 hour drive from downtown Shanghai. Praised as the “Venice of China”, the water town of Zhujiajiao is an old town with hundreds years of history. You can enjoy a leisure boat ride through the water way crossing the ancient town.

You will visit the famous Ke Zhi Garden and have enough time to wander around the small town, to appreciate the peace of mind that different from the metropolitan city.

After your trip in the ancient town, we will go back to shanghai. You can have a good rest at your hotel of just take a free exploration in the rest of the day.

Stay overnight in Shanghai

In the morning, you will take a flight from Shanghai to Lhasa, the holy land of Tibet.

Upon your arrival, your tour guide will hold a board with your name on it at the exit of Lhasa Gonggar Airport to welcome you. A private car will take you to the reserved hotel.You may view the Yarlung Tsangpo River/ Bhamaputra river (the Longest and largest river in Tibet) and Lhasa river on their way to Lhasa.

Stay overnight in Lhasa.

Today, you’ll pay a visit to the famous Potala Palace, the world culture heritage. You can explore its audience halls, the jeweled and Golden burial chortens (stupa Tombs) of past Dalai Lamas, and tremendous number of Buddhist frescoes, thangkas, combinations of mandala, etc.

Then tourists will head to the holiest temple in Tibet, the Johkang Temple, built during Songtsen Ganpo's reign by princess Wencheng of Tang dynasty, 647 A.D. Here you can observe sincere pilgrims making prostration in front of Jokhang Temple. While entering inside the temple, you can see the holiest statue of Buddha. Around the monastery is the famous Barkhor Street, where you can do the kora with pilgrims and locals. And then we’ll go to explore the old market and you may have chance to see the traditional jewelry trading between people from different part of Tibet.

Finally, we’ll taste Tibetan tea with locals in tea house and enjoy a welcome dinner at night.

Stay overnight in Lhasa.

Optional:

After finishing the sightseeing, if time allows, you may go with tour guide to visit Tibetan handicraft art or Tibetan Traditional Medicine center. Besides, you can also choose to upgrade your tour to enjoy Tibetan Culture Show in the evening (fr. 60USD).

Today, you will visit two important monasteries in Lhasa, the Drepung and the Sera. Drepung Monastery, the largest monastery in Tibet, was founded by Jamyang Choeje in 1416. Situated at the foot of Gebeiwoze Mountain, it was once home to more than 10000 monks. Here you can see the biggest monastery kitchen inside and then pay a visit to the Buddhist Sculpture Carving near Drepung.

After having lunch, you’ll continue to visit the Sera Monastery, which was founded in 1419 by Tsongkapa's disciple Jamchen Choeje. The most interesting thing is to see monks debating in the courtyard at around 3-5 in the afternoon. Besides, you can also see the colorful Rock Painting of Buddha and the three sand Mandalas and then visit the Tibetan religious text printing house.

Stay overnight in Lhasa.

In the morning, we’ll drive from Lhasa to Lake Namtso, one of the three holy lakes in Tibet. On the way, you can see Nyenchen Tanggula Mountain Range and lots of nomads with yak and sheep grazing in the flourishing grassland (in summer). In addition, you can also appreciate the view of Sky-Road Railway with snow mountain background. Driving over Lagenla Mountain Pass (5190m), tourists can far view Namtso Lake shinning in the sun.

Then you can take a leisure trek around Tashi Island and enjoy the stunning sunset of Namtso Lake. In the evening, you can enjoy night view of the Milky Way along the lake shore.

Stay overnight at the lake shore tent guest house.

In the morning, you can appreciate the beautiful sunrise view of the Namtso Lake and then trek along the lake shore to Tashi Dor Island to explore the meditation caves.

In the afternoon, you may enjoy Yangpachen Hot Spring (Optional, Price $25 not included in package), which has both indoor and outdoor swimming pools filled with hot spring water. Then we’ll get back to Lhasa City.

Stay overnight in Lhasa.

The driver will take you to airport or train station.

Service end.