Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 7

August 2, 2014August 2, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 27 continued..

We started descending on the Southern side of Himalayas:

Now I know even in this life heaven can be experienced:

A Village on High Himalaya:

This just make me speechless, I couldn’t even believe my eyes:

Tibetan dogs:

Rarely find some vehicle on the road:

Another lovely Village:

Isn’t that the melting gold from heaven blessing this wonder land?

Anybody in game to drive that road:

At last the descend starts:

Now we are finally in the Southern side of mighty Himalayas:

Nayalam, the town where Mansarovar pilgrims stay an additional day to acclimatize, still we are at 3750 meter

After 10 days first time we are at a height of less than 3500 meter, At Zhangmu (The border town in Tibet- Nepal border) finally at 2250 meter we are ending our amazing journey through Tibet, the green is back again

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Next: Day 28

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 6

August 2, 2014August 2, 2014 by Kaushik

Now start ascending for final push to Thong La, Can you see the road below that’s going to Mansarovar:

Lone Yak standing in snow land:

The road leading to heaven:

Snow was so heavy that Chinese machinery couldn’t open the road completely after 72 hours:

Can you identify the Friendship Higway, amazingly beautiful:

This is just ocean of snow, look the snow all around, seems this was really The Tethys Sea, 250 millions years ago, just frozen with time:

The road continues:

And now what else you can call as Heaven, believe or not that’s the friendship highway and Chinese keeps it open through out the year:

The Journey Continues:

Friendship Highway goes on:

These huts are for the road workers who maintain this epic highway:

Snow is so heavy, it’s quite difficult get space when a truck comes from other side:

Ocean of snow:

Friendship Highway at its highest point:

From the top of Himalayan range:

Thong La Pass, see the Trucks but its quite difficult to understand where the road is:

Amazing Journey Continues:

That’s village inhabited all the year through:

Friendship Highway Continues:

Sun is setting in High Himalayas:

Previous: Day 27/Part 5

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 5

August 2, 2014August 2, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 27 continued..

Now we are approaching this beautiful Alpine Lake:

This is simply a shortcut connector from Friendship Highway (318) to Tibet-Xinjiang Highway (219) and this stretch is not part of any highway:

Awe Inspiring vista is simply amazing!! :

Now you need to do off-roading to reach close to Lake:

Approaching Pieku Tso :

Off-roading in the blessed land:

Amazing Vista all around:

Closer to this alpine lake Pieku Tso:

Toyota Landcruiser, the most reliable transport in Tibet Plateau for ages, though I heard in 2014, China is going to ban all these 10 years old Land Cruisers and if they really do that (which we would know close to April) it would create a big mess for all journey to Tibet in 2014 and cost of the trip would be rising :

Last glance to Peiku Tso:

The Great Himalayan wall:

Approaching a small town in Himalayan Kingdom:

The Kiangs, in the left in all white background:

The amazing journey continues:

Tibetans riding on the snow land:

Unbelievable Journey:

Now start ascending for final push to Thong La, Can you see the road below that’s going to Mansarovar:

Previous: Day 27/Part 4

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 4

August 2, 2014August 2, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 27 continued..

As seen from the Friendship Highway — Extreme Left Mt. Lhotse (8516 meter, 4th Highest ), Then from Left to Right Mt. Everest (8848 meter), Mt. Gyachung Kang (7952 meter, 15th Highest), Mt. Cho Oyu (8201 meter, 6th Highest) .. Mt. Makalu (8485 meter, 5th Highest) is just missing from sight in extreme left which is visible from Pang La on the way to EBC. I don’t think you would find a place in earth from where you can see 4 peaks above 8000 meter and 26 odd peaks over 7000 meters from a motorable road.

Mt. Lhotse and Mt. Everest

Mt. Everest, Mt. Gyachung Kang and Mt. Cho Oyu:

The magic wall of 8000 meters:

Friendship Highway goes on:

Small Town beside Friendship Highway:

Friendship Highway entering the land of white:

Entering All White, don’t miss the peak in far, Mt. Shishapangma (Lowest among the 8000 meters peak, at 8013 Meter known as 14th Highest and only 8000 meter peak that is located completely inside Tibet):

Driving in High Himalayan Region is an experience of Life time, Amazing Concrete road China has made in this difficult terrain:

Prayer Flags in innumerable passes enroute:

Now we are into the road towards Mansarovar and we are approaching towards the alpine lake Pieku Tso:

Local Tibetans Bikers:

A Village in the middle of snow:

Driving through the amazing road:

First look at Peiku Tso in right, amazing setting of the Alpine Lake:

Yaks grazing in Himalayan Backdrop:

Sheep grazing in the pastureland:

Previous: Day 27/Part 3

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 3

August 2, 2014August 2, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 27 continued..

Thanks to Kid for withstanding 10000 km of torture for almost a month before we could see Himalaya from North:

Time to introduce the family, my co-travellers for this trip, we are almost coming to the end of this great journey now

The more I look at this snow wall, more I get thrilled, this is the wall that has changed the history and geography of India from beginning, without this wall we would have surely invaded from North by Tibetans, Chinese and Mongolians and our history would look different and without this wall our climate would look closer to Siberian than tropical, thanks to this great wall for making what India is today:

Ruins of some Tibetan fort those gave British a tough fight when they invaded Tibet from India (through Jelep la in Sikkim):

Friendship Highway going beside the wall:

Tingri Town:

That’s Mt Everest from Tingri:

Great Wall again from Tingri:

Even an Ultra Wide Angle failed to take the whole wall:

The Only Accommodation in Tingri, a very basic dormitory:

Friendship Highway:

Small Village:

Friendship Highway:

Colorful Grass:

Ruins of Forts:

And The Journey continues..

Tibetan Villages beside the Friendship Highway:

Friendship Highway, well built for bigger vehicles:

Friendship highway under the well decorated sky :

Previous: Day 27/Part 2

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 2

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 27 continued..

Along with that the snow wall in horizon:

Inching towards the snow wall of Mighty Himalayan Ranges:

Amazing Lakes:

Lakes with colorful mountains:

Reflections of snow wall:

That’s the snow wall of mighty Himalayas, first time looking at them from North side:

Continued the journey and we looked closely to Himalayan walls of great 8000 meters peak including Everest, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Shisapangma from Northern side in Tibet Plateau. The view was completely different than what we saw from South side as the high Himalayan ranges are farthest when we looked from South overlooking lower ranges of Shivalik and Himachal Himalayas with lots of green. When we looked from North from Tibet Plateau at a height of 5000 meter, the Highest Himalayan ranges was the only range that was visible and that stood closest to us and all the great 8000 meters peak looked like within the touching distances forming an all white snow wall.

Entering Tingri, the gateway of EBC North:

See the 180 degree panorama of High Himalayan range, a number of 8000 meters are visible here, can you locate Mt. Everest (Called Chomolungma in Tibetans and known as Sagarmatha in Nepalese):

The snow wall:

See how High Himalayan ranges look like when you see from North, the highest range consisting of 8000 meter peaks are straight in front of you when you look from North standing in Tibet Plateau, the small village is amazingly located just in foot hill of the range, this you never could see from South side where smaller mountains would not allow you to see the complete range from top to bottom:

Mt. Everest North Face:

Colorful Mountains all around:

Mt. Everest in the center:

Snow Walls standing tall:

The small town near to us is Tingri, see the amazing location of Tingri from top of a nearby hill:

The great snow wall:

Previous: Day 26 and 27/Part 1

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 26 and Day 27/Part 1

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 26:

We just felt how big a disaster could be in high mountains, when cyclone Philine after loosing its 80% of strength hit Everest region last night and snowed 3 meters in just an hour or so. We were sheltered in a concrete house but still the sound and strength of hail storm was nerve wrecking. The road (Friendship Highway) was closed and Everest Base camp was closed indefinitely. It was a shock to us as EBC was our one of the most sought after destination in whole trip but we heard from locals that many tourists were killed in last nights snow and hail storm and many were still lost. The EBC since then been closed and never opened for the rest of the year, as of now what I heard it would reopen only in April 2014. We definitely had a bad day in the trip and forced ourselves in the room as it was completely snowed out but because of this cyclone, we saw a different views of Friendship Highway on next day when it reopened, a view very few could witness with clear blue sky, world’s highest peak looming in the horizon and few feet of snow in either side of the black tarmac of the road as long as you can see!!

Day 27:

We started early as we had to cover till Zhangmu (Nepal-Tibet Border) and we knew we had a lot of stops to be taken for the entire day as we would cross High Himalayan ranges today. Woeser was upset too as we couldn’t make EBC, promptly instructed the guide to refund our entrance fees for EBC and also he offered us 100 km extra ride to Peiku Tso, a wonderful alpine lake towards the way to Western Tibet (Mansarovar), Woeser repeatedly proved the worth of choosing a right tour operator in such an unpredictable circuit. Just outside of Shegar town there was a major military check post where permits and passports were thoroughly checked for all 3 of us. This is the most important checkpoint in whole Lhasa – Kathmandu route where all papers and even luggage could be scanned. After 5 km from this checkpoint the turn off for Mt. Everest appeared approximately at kilometer marker of 5145 (From Shanghai). As a last hope we still gone to the security check post to get an idea of latest situation, what we heard still tourists and cars were trapped in upper region with meters of snow and all tents in Rongbuk were still under snow, the Chinese rescue team were working with the aid of helicopters to rescue tourists. Any movement from here towards base camp was strictly prohibited. We once again felt, it’s the mother nature who takes the final call as we abandoned our EBC dream which we planned and well executed almost till end for last 2 years just from 80 km away from the final destination. We soon reached Tingri, once a Tibetan-Nepali trading center for grain, goods, wool and livestock. The trade largely died out since China took over but odd Nepali traders can still be seen here. The small town lies in the edge of a vast plain. There are great views of the Himalayan Giants, all eight thousanders in the south for 180 degree, Starting from Everest to Lhotse to Nuptse to Cho Oyu the whole range was looking spectacular, we drove just outside the town to south for a better view from hill top and it was simply looking gorgeous. Looking at mighty Himalayan ranges from North and seen them in South was an experience of a life time. We had our lunch done in Tingri and as we drove south western, we started entering a magical region which might be the real heaven as we experienced it. The views from double pass of Thong La whose North Crest at 4950 meter and South Crest at 5200 meter was spectacular and beyond any description. We started going all the downhill after this and sharply started reducing heights as in 50km we climbed down from 5200 meter to 3700 meter to Nayalam and then in another 25 km to Zhangmu which was just at 2250 meter. From Nayalam the amazing drop off of plateau down through lush forest terrain with gushing waterfalls, it was simply an outstanding drive which we would remember for some times to come. We again got a 4 star hotel (Hotels at Zhangmu were quite costly) and thanks to Woeser for ending the trip so well.

First ray of Sun in the morning:

Hotel at Shegar, 24 hours Hot Water was the USP :

Small town of Shegar:

Villages beside the Friendship Highway:

The road goes on:

The turn where our dreams were shattered just 80 odd km away from final destination to EBC North Base Camp (There is always a next time in life but that is not so easy when it comes to Tibet):

Dream Ride continues:

Going through small villages:

Amazing Drive through Friendship Highway:

Colorful Grasses:

Previous: Day 25/Part 2

Next: Day 27/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Things to keep in mind

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

International Air Tickets: can be purchased from any recommended travel site like makemytrip, thomascook, cleartrip, etc. specially if you are looking to buy China Southern or China Eastern Airlines, Except Air China no Chinese Airlines have any India Specific site (read where you can purchase using INR), else you can go the Airlines sites of US/Canada/Hongkong and check where you get it cheapest after forex conversion to INR. Air China India site doesn’t sell tickets between Chengdu to Kathmandu or Lhasa to Kathmandu for some reason which Air China helpdesk could not explain, if you want to buy any of these scenic route flights your option is to use Air China’s US/Canada website but don’t try to buy them from their original site which is Chinese and accept Chinese card only.
Usually in China like other places, there are 60 days, 30 days, 15 days slab and if you can buy ticket even just before 15 days you get cheap price, but within 15 days makes it double and sometimes triple. Also as I said earlier don’t plan during Chinese New Year and Golden Week Holidays as airfare goes beyond roof during that time.

Domestic Air Tickets: To busy Chinese domestic Air tickets your best bet is ctrip.com, elong.net and travelzen.com These are the 3 very reliable sites to book Chinese domestic air ticket in English and and using visa / master card. Ctrip is biggest and have best deal where as travelzen’s advantage is it’s the only site that doesn’t charge additional 4% when you use a non Chinese credit card. Start following domestic ticket price 30 days before and anytime between 21 days to 7 days before journey you usually get the best price.

Domestic Trains Very popular in China and there are several types of train, for detail refer seat61.com china page and you will get invaluable information. Train Tickets are issued from Chinese official railway site (www.12306.cn) 20 days before travel but unless you are proficient in Chinese and have Chinese Credit Card you can’t use this site. Tickets are on sale 18 days before travel from various stations and city ticket booking office and through agents as well. If you take high speed bullet trains from Beijing – Shanghai, getting tickets are easier but if you try to get tickets of mountain trains from Beijing / Chengdu /Guangzhou / Xining to Lhasa, or some other busy lines, you would find it sold out on first few mins of selling. It’s even faster than what we see in IRCTC here during some festival. So specially for Lhasa train, you need to depend on agent and be ready to shell out high commission (sometimes same as ticket price, that means 100% commission) if you want better class like soft sleeper. During high season, even agent can’t guarantee your ticket in your preferred train and preferred class.

Few things on Lhasa Train:

1. You arrange your Lhasa Train Tickets through Tibet Agents and don’t try to get it of your own or by other agents as many things need to be coordinated with train journey date and it’s very slim chance you would get the train ticket of your own unless you try in leanest season of Dec/Jan.

2. Negotiate with the agent on commission but that depends on time of travel.

3. Currently there are daily 5 trains between Xining to Lhasa between 15.00 hours to 20:15 hours (Departure from Xining), The later train you take, you would get better view as you would cross most interesting Golmud – Lhasa section in day time. But getting tickets on a later train is more difficult.

4. Usually it’s cheaper and easier to travel by train in reverse direction. So if you fly in to Lhasa and take a train out, availability of tickets will be more, and cost of commission will be less.

5. In China, age doesn’t matter for concession ticket, what they check is height instead If someone is below 1.2 mtr, it’s free, between 1.2 to 1.5 mtr its half price, above 1.5 mtr full price. This rule even applicable for scenic fee entries. In station I heard (not seen) they have measurement tape to measure the height in case of any confusion

Bus Tickets:
There are lot of long distance buses (sleeper type) available between almost all cities and if you can tolerate Chinese smoking randomly inside bus, it’s an excellent way to save money as bus travel is not very uncomfortable and quite cheap. This also reduce your hotel cost if you can get yourself in a night bus. Bus tickets can’t be bought online, you have to purchase from local bus station 48 hours before journey or can get it through agent.

Local Transport:
Local buses are there almost in all cities where the cost of travel is just 1 CNY where ever you go. Cabs are available but charges vary between city to city, in Beijing /Shanghai it’s costlier than cabs in Kashgar. Remember in Tibet foreigners are not allowed to take a local transport.

Self Drive:
Whatever I read, that self drive needs Chinese Driving License as IDP convention was not signed by China. But big Govt travel agents like CITS arrange the self drive tour (that even includes Xinjiang – Tibet) – China Self-drive Tours
Also companies like Navo is specialized in self driving in China, manages a temporary 90 days China Driving license for tourists but as you understand it’s not easy and straight forward like driving in US and Europe or Australia.

China self-driving tours; foreigners drive Chinese vehicle in China & Oversea

Hire car and Driver:
Hassle free but moderately costly option is a good choice if you can find a local driver who can speak in English, which is extremely difficult to find in any part of China. Most cars go by daily rate which includes fuel, driver’s charge, accommodation, parking, toll (There are lots of toll roads in China). But ice on the cake is if you can find an English speaking driver who can have a guide license. Actually only licensed guides can enter into any designated scenic places and sometimes in some areas, guide is a must for foreigners. But taking a separate guide will cost you a bomb (charges anything between 60 to 100 USD per day just for guide). Somehow I managed to find 2 such English speaking drivers who has guide license in both North and South Xinjiang trip and both were found excellent in their service. I will post details about their contact later but as none of them linked to any travel agency (Just independent driver / Guide) the cost was much lesser than arranging it through an agency.
Thumb rule: Don’t take Chinese Drivers, their driving record is worst in world and also specially if you go to minority dominated place like Xinjiang and Tibet, Local Uighur / Tibetans are better bet as they speak fluently local, Chinese and English (for your case) and have lots of local contacts which is pretty helpful to know situation in advance in a country where information flow is restricted.

Money:
Though agents / drivers / guides will ask you send in advance, I managed to bypass that and didn’t send any advance, sending money to China means even recipient bank deducts 4% bank charge on the amount you remit, in dollar that hurts. Also there is no PayPal and Western Union possible between India and China, your only option is bank transfer which is having lot of paperwork, Chinese visa and travel is so uncertain if your trip gets cancelled, to get your money back, you have to again pay commission to Chinese Bank.
So my target was simple, carry cash, cash and cash!! Many forex dealer like your bank or Amex or Thomascook will try to teach you to be modern and carry a forex card but no one can offer a card that is loaded in CNY as a result you will pay 4% as forex transaction charge each time you swipe that. Also no of visa / master enabled ATM is few specially in remote areas. China is a country where you will face lot of paperworks and processes in anything you do, even encashing TC will be charged 25 USD and a lot of time, your 3/4 hours will be lost to encash 1000 USD.
Always carry Forex in USD which is most readily accepted in China, don’t try to bring CNY from India as that will cost you more rather than converting USD there in China (In China CNY-USD rate is fixed and even in black market if you encash dollar it’s still same) and Chinese Customs is strict on carrying with large amount of CNY. Completely torn bad notes even work (as they say) till it bears the face of Mao. Using black market to convert is easier and very quick but problem is if you convert more than you require and need to get USD back when returning you need another black market to do it as without proper receipts no bank will change your CNY to USD.
Credit Cards are used only in big cities and big hotels, otherwise, master / visa card is not much use in remote china.

Connectivity:
Most hotels have wired network, few have even Wi-Fi. But configuring it not easy even for wired, plug and play doesn’t usually work and the instruction written in room/ modem all will come in Chinese which you won’t understand, if you call someone in hotel, he won’t be able to read English in your screen, so depending on that is little difficult and unpredictable.
I carried a Chinese Data Card available from Matrix and it worked nicely and saved me many situations.

Mobile
Your international roaming will be too costly, getting a Chinese local SIM is easy (though need some paperwork in sensitive areas of Xinjiang and Tibet) but worst is their bill plan works only in City. So if I buy a SIM in Urumqi, it will start roaming just outside of it and many times won’t work at all. Best is to get SIM which works across whole China, though that is not easy to find, so again I chose Matrix and though charges were little higher than getting local prepaid SIM, it helped me escaping lot of hassles. You need a good mobile as sometimes our driver left us on road to park and then we had to talk 15 mins over mobile to find him out because you won’t be able to tell your exact location as everything around you is written in Chinese.

Others
Good to have a health insurance if you are in a long trip to China but later I saw in my Bajaj Alliance insurance, in fine print it was clearly written “Tibet is not covered specially Mansarovar Yatra”
If you are very social and can’t live without Facebook or may need Google or some of your favorite site, 90% chance you will see they are blocked in China. So you need a temporary subscription of some VPN or Proxy Server which will route your browsing through some servers located in Hongkong or US.
Take all your important document printouts in Chinese, like your name, your details, etc. and documents like Air Ticket, Hotel Voucher etc should be printed in Chinese, we were almost missing our flight as we didn’t care for this. You will rarely get someone even in an Airport which is 3 times bigger than Delhi T3 where people can read or speak English.
So with all these in our tiny heads, we started the trip on 20th September from home to catch a Kolkata – Kunming Flight of 21st Sep, early morning (12.30 am).

Approaching Thong La, through which Friendship Highway crosses High Himalayas, Can you spot the Kiyangs:

The below road, can you identify? That’s going to Manas Sarovar, Mt. Kailash:

Seems Heavenly:

After Cyclone Philin the snow was so heavy, Chinese machinery took 72 hours to open just one lane of the road :

Thong La around 5500 mtr:

Inside mighty Himalayas:

Never seen a sunset in Himalayas sitting on top of it. Unbelievable!! :

The Border Town between Nepal and China (Tibet) at last, in Chinese Zhangmu, in Tibetan Drum. The landscape changed drastically with more green and height is now just 2250 mtrs

First View of Kathmandu where our epic journey ends as we catch flight back home from here:

Previous: Visa and Flights to China

Next: Day 0, 1 and 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Visa and Flights to China

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

There are many land borders of China with neighboring countries except with India, I knew of crossing overland to China from following countries:

1. Myanmar – With some requirement of additional permits from Muse to Ruili but note in Myanmar side you need special permits as these belt is infamous for Kachin militants, permit is not cheap either.

2. Laos

3. Vietnam – You can cross even in Train from Nanning

4. North Korea – Train crossing possible.

5. Russia – Only possible through Trans Manchurian Rail

6. Mongolia – Couple of borders along with possibility of using Trans Mongolian Rail

7. Kazakhstan – Both by road and train crossing possible.

8. Kyrgyzstan

9. Pakistan

10. Nepal

I have excluded Hongkong and Macau which are two special administrative region of China but you need separate Chinese visa to enter mainland china from either of these places. There are boat and road crossing between them.

So out of the above 10 countries which has overland border crossing with China, except Nepal, visa processing is same for others. This is more interesting topic of discussion who might have a dream of making it from Europe to Singapore overland as most likely you need to cross China sometimes (Unless India-Myanmar-Thailand overland is possible and you can get through Iran – Pakistan – India leg).

Other than that for lesser mortals, it’s much easier to fly into China, the visa requirement is same but it’s worth remembering one point, getting a Chinese visa from a third country (where you are traveling and not a citizen) is always difficult and dicey. Just before our trip in China, suddenly Chinese Govt stopped issuing visa from Kyrgyzstan embassy for non citizens and lots of foreigners who are making their ambitious Eurasian trip overland had to abort their trip midway. So when you plan to visit China through other countries, plan your route and visa accordingly.

Also whatever process I will describe below is actually what I experienced in Chinese consulates in India, a lot of people have different experiences in getting Chinese visa from one consulate to others in same time. So it depends on the consulate where you are applying for, check the history of it in some international travel forum. The Chinese visa rule changes very frequently as well, so before your trip, keep yourself updated with the process from local consulates.

In India, there are 3 consulates, in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and they have their respective jurisdiction and as of when I asked them last.

1. People having passports issued from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka can apply in Mumbai

2. People having passports issued from West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa can apply in Kolkata

3. Rest all have to apply in Delhi.

There are many different types of visa and for tourists, it’s the tourist visa (Type L) which you need to apply and that’s important as with work / student or other visas, getting permits (specially in Tibet) is extremely difficult. So whatever we will discuss it’s about Tourist Visa.

The requirements were:

1. You need to have 6 months of validity in your passport on date of application.

2. Passport Issue should be within consulate jurisdiction as I mentioned above.

3. You need to fill up an application form with your photo.

4. A covering letter mentioning your intent of travel and a detail travel itinerary

5. Your 6 months bank statement signed and stamped by bank (Stupid that they don’t accept bank statement printout from net banking) where closing balance must be 1 lac per person (Means if you apply for your family of 3, you should have 3 lacs in your account)

6. Your confirmed proof of arrival and departure (Read Air Tickets and that’s the reason entering / exiting china overland is extremely difficult unless you catch an international train like Trans Siberian where you get physical ticket issued much earlier than your departure date)

7. Your confirmed hotel booking voucher in each place of stay (Yes for a 30 days trip, you need to show proof of hotel for all 30 days)

You have to apply visa through their authorized visa processing agent (VFS Global) in respective cities where consulate is located.
Now most important is Chinese don’t understand that China is vast and people may have interest to see something else than Beijing / Shanghai / Guangzhou. Specially if you mention XUAR or TAR, you would most likely be declined your visa. Mention of TAR would not allow you to apply for visa with VFS, and makes it extremely complicated as VFS would direct you to Consulate directly who has clearly mentioned as their policy that Indians are allowed in Tibet as pilgrims only and in a group visa. So better don’t be honest here, be correct!!

So now you understand requirement 4, 6 and 7 would make your lives complicated, this mean you need a fictitious itinerary to start with and then support that with relevant documents. To write it simply, I prepared

1. Itinerary of 40 days covering Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Kunming, Xian etc. Itinerary of 40 days will make you eligible to get 60 days single entry visa which makes life little simple as otherwise for a long trip if you are delayed you are risking yourself to get into the tangle to visa extension. (normally they issue a 30 days single entry visa)

2. Then support it with hotel bookings, not a real problem as you can use many global booking engine to do this and then cancel it without any extra charge.

3. The real problem is air ticket, you need to either get a full fare air ticket which is fully refundable or you need to book something very cheap (may be like Air Asia) which you can throw away. All Chinese Airlines have minimum cancellation charges of 500 Yuan, (Approx 5500 INR per ticket) for discounted tickets, Air India has slightly lower cancellation fees. This you can’t escape and it’s better to consider your loss as part of visa fees.

Air Connectivity:
Following Airlines were the choice for you to get your real and fictitious tickets.

Chinese:

1. Air China – Connects Delhi – Beijing and Mumbai – Chengdu (Seasonally connects Bangalore to Chengdu too)

2. China Southern – Connects Delhi – Guangzhou

3. China Eastern – Connects Kolkata – Kunming

Indian:

1. Air India – Connects Delhi – Shanghai

2. Jet – Connects Delhi – Shanghai

3. Spice Jet – Connects Delhi – Guangzhou

You won’t get any direct connection to Xinjiang from India, rather you have to change flight somewhere in China and more eastern port of entry you choose, longer will be your flying time and cost to Xinjiang as it’s in extreme west, flight time is almost same as Coast to Coast flights of US
You might buy an air ticket to Lhasa via Kunming/ Guangzhou etc. when you book it with international leg but it’s not at all recommended because to board Lhasa flight from anywhere you need to produce original Tibet Permit which is extremely difficult to get before entering China as they don’t send your permit abroad. So discuss with your agent on how you can make it. Only international connection of Lhasa is from Kathmandu where again your boarding will be denied if you can’t produce Tibet Permit but that’s a separate story we will discuss when we talk about permits from Nepal.

Entering China (Tibet) from Nepal:

This is handled in a separate way through a treaty between China and Nepal. Even if you have valid Chinese visa in your passport, if you try to enter through Nepal, that’s have no value, it will be cancelled by Chinese Consulate in Kathmandu. Only Group visa for a minimum group size of 5 people are issued (which in 2012 was even stricter and all 5 were to be with same nationalities which was relaxed in 2013) but catch is it comes with your Tibet permit as from Nepal you have to enter into Tibet first to get into China. So if Tibet is closed for foreigners, you won’t get to enter through this route.

Pros:

1. This visa is completely handled by Kathmandu based travel agents, I have never heard someone applying of their own going to consulate, so you don’t have to go through all the paper works and other hassles as I described above.

2. Tibet Permit will be coming with it, a big plus.

Con:

1. It’s only valid for 15 days, so whatever you plan has to be done within 15 days and it’s non extendable anywhere in China.

2. It’s a group visa, so it’s just a separate paper and not stamped in your passport and one person if got sick in your team and need to leave, your whole team have to leave together, group visa mean you will enter and exit through same port at same time.

3. Depends on Tibet Closure, so shouldn’t plan other part of China with this special visa.

4. Consulate in Kathmandu only opens 3 days a week and you need to be present in Kathmandu keeping one working day in hand to allow agent to complete paperwork, consult your Kathmandu agent for your detail plan and arrival in Nepal.

Most importantly be careful as you are taking a big risk of not acclimatizing yourself by taking friendship highway from Kathmandu side. At Kathmandu you are at 1200 mtr, at Drum (China Immigration) you will be at 2250 mtr and then in another hour or so you will reach Nayalam which is at 3750 mtr and the height will never go below 3500 mtr after that, next stop Tingri or Pelbar will be at 4200 mtr.

So if you take this route, it’s always advisable to flying to Lhasa from Kathmandu (The best scenic flight, much better than so called mountain flight of Nepal where you will glide past Lhotse, Nuptse, Everest, Kanchanjungha, before crossing High Himalayas to Tibet but air ticket is quite costly and better you buy it through agent as you don’t know when you get your visa) and then drive out to Kathmandu through friendship highway after getting acclimatized in Lhasa which has best medical facility in whole TAR.

Sheep graze in backdrop of the Himalayas:

Pieku Tso Lake, on the way to Saga, if you go to Mansarovar from Nepal Crossing at Drum, you will see this beautiful alpine lake:

Pieku Tso:

The Toyota Land Cruiser, King of Off-roading, the most trusted and reliable mode of Transport in Tibet for decades:

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Recommended time of Travel

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

When you are spending so much financially and emotionally you should understand the best time to travel in the region. Actually there is no best time of travel that we know very well, few of us now have been to Ladakh probably in all 12 months of the year but still getting into Tibet so frequently is not easy, more so for Indians.

So let’s discuss first on Xinjiang:

Xinjiang is divided centrally by Tienshan Mountain. The Northern Xinjiang between Tienshan in south and Altai Mountains in North geographically called Jungar Basin which is mostly a desert and in northern side, Altai County is more of Siberian Tundra region. So From October to March it’s a long winter with mercury dropping down even to Minus 40 and it’s completely snowed out. All hotels remain closed during this time and unless you are eyeing for a specific Ski destination and using flight from Urumqi, Northern Xinjiang is out of bound in long winter. Southern Xinjiang which is between Tienshan range in North to Kunlun range in South, named as Tarim Basin, is mostly covered by Taklamakan Desert, very cold in winter with snow toppings on Taklamakan red sand makes it look very beautiful. Hotels in southern part usually opened during year long, though Kashgar, Hotan, Yarkhand, the main towns on silk road might be snow bound between December to February. Karakoram Highway is completely snow bound but kept operational by Chinese till Tashkurgan. The Western Highway 219 is anyway out of question which goes through Aksai Chin just because of terrific weather. Though trucks keep plying and Chinese keep this 5500 mtr road operational through out the year just for strategic reasons.

Spring time, April and May usually shoulder season and you get it in cheap but infamous for frequent Dust Storms, The Desert Dust Storms can be deadly to stop air traffic even for 72 hours and it sometimes take 2 weeks for the dust to settle down. Definitely it won’t be a pleasant experience to catch in Dust Storms in Xinjiang.

The best time to Travel is summer which is between June to August and usually lush green grassland of Yili (Kazak side) or Altai (Northern Side) are its best during this time with lots of Siberian Birds of different species. Weather is sunny with least rain and blue sky even in Southern side and all roads are open but of course this is time when everything is very costly.

Autumn is short, just in September for Northern and Sep and Oct for Southern Xinjiang show you tremendous fall colors and give still bearable temperature in North (We still got lowest 10 degree below freezing point) and roads are all open. But sometimes you will face dust storms in Fall too. But this is a shoulder season and if you are budget conscious and can give the green of grassland a miss (which is a huge miss) you can eye on this time.

Golden Rules:

1. Never travel in China in Chinese New Year (Usually in Feb) and Golden Holiday Week (First week of October) unless you want to make a complete mess of everything, starting from air ticket, to train ticket to hotel everything is costlier and still you might not get and you can’t imagine the rush of Chinese tourists during this time, who thinks Kolkata Durga Puja or Mumbai Suburban Trains are last words for crowd and rush, you will change your perception if you ever be in China during this time.

2. Xinjiang is avoidable in the month of Ramadan, this is a Muslim dominated region and you never know the threat perception of Chinese Govt, you might get caught in between and mess up your plan.

Tashkurgan Grassland – vast grassland gone till China – Pakistan Border for 125km:

Tashkurgan Stone Fort Entrance:

Tajik-China Border Immigration – Border is just 14km away but not yet opened for foreigners:

Karakoram Highway crossing the valley below Kunlun Range:

Reflection:

Kyrghiz Father and Kid:

Famous Uighur Knives dated back from the ages of Carpet and Silk, you love to have it but Chinese Govt doesn’t, it’s not even allowed to carry these knives in Check in Luggage:

Nice Kashgar traditional shop but even prettier shopkeeper :

Ruins of Kashgar Old City, Govt doesn’t give permission now to visit, we had to escape police to reach here, may be someone’s drawing room, so nicely painted wall, God knows how old these are:

Jiahoe Ruins, at Turpan again a 3rd Century Town’s Ruin:

Luilan Beauty – A mummy preserved in Uighur style (Different from Egyptian Mummy) dated back 1800 BC, almost 4000 years old – At Urumqi Museum

Let’s come to Tibet now:

Never plan Tibet between Feb and March though it’s the best to see most Tibetan Festivals, Spring colors and all in a low season during this time. The reason is this is the time when 2007 uprising took place and since then for these 2 months Tibet was closed for foreigners in every year. So better not to try it, let’s keep even January out of bound as sometimes Chinese Govt gives 48 hours notice to foreigners in Lhasa to leave Tibet, after so much plan and putting so much money you will never want that.

So now let’s think between April to December period.

For Western Tibet (Ngiri Region) best time is June to September as you will get hotels / guest houses open and weather at its best, though last few years I have been observing serious of Eastern Disturbances from South China Sea hit this region and cause substantial rain fall. (One such stream met with an Westerlies from Arabian sea, did the massacre in Uttrakhand, this summer, the other side of hill Tibet was battered too.

For Northern Tibet (Nag qu region), the grassland is at its best in June, July and August, from Sep the grass started turning brown and red. Rest of the time it’s very difficult to approach this part.

For Eastern Tibet (Nyingchi Region) it’s best to travel between Oct to Dec and April – May as these part receives highest rainfall in whole Tibet and during June-Sep its prone to landslide and road block. The weather is very similar to our North East, more close to Arunachal.

For Central and Southern Tibet (Lhasa, Shegatse and Shannan Prefecture) it’s anytime between April to December. Cost is lowest in Nov and Dec with weather slightly with you, you can enjoy even the clear view of Everest. April-May is shoulder season when you get some discount but between June to October it’s high season with everything costly. July and August usually is rainy season when Lhasa receives highest rainfall and Everest will be covered in cloud. So weather wise if you want best, May and October is the best bet for you.

Golden Rules:

1. Keep eyes closely on important Chinese events and don’t plan anything close to that even if it happens far from Tibet. During whole 2008, the year of Beijing Olympic they kept the Tibet shut, as I mentioned in some early post, it was closed during the Communist Party Congress in October 2012.

2. Don’t plan in Chinese New Year and October Golden Holiday as I mentioned earlier.

3. Don’t plan between Jan – Mar as Tibet usually gets closed for foreigners during this time.

4. Keep eyes on Tibet’s situation as anytime if there is some disturbance like Tibetan monks self immolation bid might lead to closure of Tibet, as you are applying visa one month before your journey date, keep yourself updated.

5. Just pray that things go well during your visit, Tibet is terribly uncertain.

Food and Accommodation

Food is cheap, in Xinjiang it should USD 5 per person per day and in Tibet would be 10 USD per person per day. Accommodation widely varied and catch is foreigners can only stay in few selective hotels in China and cheapest accommodations won’t fall in this categories. This is very strictly followed in China and so for accommodation you can’t get away very cheaply here. Travel Permits in contrary is not costly, many times absolutely free but need so much effort and ability to speak fluent Chinese, you have to depend on agencies and they would certainly charge you something.

Language

It is impossible to speak / understand Chinese so easily, not having any link to any of my known languages. I was depending on my drivers (English speaking) to manage the show but most who travels independently using public transport prefers to use some offline Chinese – English Translator to manage it. You can search it in Amazon. But don’t try to depend on Google Translator or something, China is famous for its National Firewall (almost as famous as Great Wall) which blocks Google, Facebook etc.

First Glimpse of Mighty Himalayan Range and first time in life, I am looking South to see these glorious ranges:

Himalayan Wall, that changed India’s History and Geography for its sheer presence, read so many times first time realized the protector wall of our North, mighty Himalayan ranges, an amazing experience:

Tibetan Landscape will cast a magical spell on you, see the far away small village, near one is Tingri, gateway to Everest North Base Camp and enjoy the amazing colors:

Can you see the little dark cone in middle, highest point in world, Mt. Everest North Face – My first sight of the dream:

How much colorful a landscape can be? Has God used all colors in His palettes to draw this canvas:

And here it is, North Face of Highest Point in Earth in its full glory: Watching Mt. Everest North Face gives you more clear view of the whole ridge than when you watch it from South, because of other high mountains in front it, Just left see the 4th Highest Peak of World, Mt. Lhotse – Another long cherished dream accomplished.

This is the highest part of Himalayan Ranges from left Mt Everest to right Cho-Oye, dream to see that with Tibetan Landscape fulfilled:

Road is going to Eternity as the Friendship highway turned south and started climbing high Himalayas:

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Tag: Everest North Face

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 7

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 6

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 5

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 4

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 3

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 27/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 26 and Day 27/Part 1

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Things to keep in mind

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Visa and Flights to China

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Recommended time of Travel