Tibet

Anyone been to Lhasa? I'm thinking about buying a 3 nt stay and traveling alone. It's just a lark with lots of travel time.
I'm starting to investigate flights from Shanghai or Beijing to Kumming, then onward to Diqing. No idea what airlines/schedules yet.
I have China visa, don't know if I need Tibet pass or whatever.
Any previous research you could provide would be helpful--thanks.

You will need a Tibet permit, which takes about 3 days to process. Including courier time might be a week or more (not exactly sure but need to check with travel agent). By law you can't travel without an itinerary from a tour group, ie no backpacking alone etc.I believethe your agency can structure something out for you.


wise, just pay full fare Chinese airlines, use ctrip.com or elong.com.The early morning and late night flights tend to be quite cheap.


warned delays up to a few hours is pretty common so if you take late night flights, you might reach at 3-4am

Thanks so much. I saw a new policy and I was very curious. I went back and forth on details, altitude, etc. This is the deal I was considering:
Mystery Travel Offers and Auctions | Luxury Link
It the Banyan Tree Ringha and I doubt it will go over a couple hundred bucks. I could go in June and it's tempting. Too much trouble, and, it's not even on my list! Oh, well...

Skyteam partner China Southern has 2x daily from CKG - LXA.

Errrrr Banyan is in Yunnan, its not Tibet, its the province next to Tibet. I doubt there is any restriction for Yunnan.

You should be flying to Kunming or somewhere like that. I wouldn't recommend non-rev within china unless you feel adventurous. They have funny policies that is unexpected. Non rev on international airlines flying china is a different story as you are still dealing with international standard airlines

Well, that's good to know, but I probably won't waste my time or energy. I wouldn't have known the difference. It does make things much easier and that hotel is VERY tempting. What to do??

Did a little more research and China Eastern is carrier from PVG, via CTU. Really crappy return times--redeye with long layover times (12 hrs!) and a bit pricey. Checked out PEK and those connect Kumming and they are more, of course. So far, the auction is Value $1800, usual LL price $721, but the special "mystery" price right now is up to $131 with 2 days to go. Somebody is going to get a STEAL. Best to just give it up! I need to let this one go...

are you flying out of PVG or PEK? IF PVG, you have alternative of SHA airport, not sure if its cheaper to fly from

did a quick check on ctrip. seems like if you break the routes it might be cheaper

Also if you go shangrila, you should also consider stopping by lijiang next door. Supposedly quite beautiful and ancient (not sure if the modernization machine has destroyed any part of it yet)

Seriously, folks!! Someone PLEASE buy this!! I can't do the trip; it's killing me but the bid is only $131 and there are less than 18 hrs to go. If you have a China visa or can get one easily, DO IT! I don't think the price will go over $150. If you got on my referral list, you pay $50 less. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

WOW--was I WRONG!! Who knew so many people would want to go to Yunnan? Some idiots bid the price up BEYOND the regular auction asking price!! The winning bid was $750 and you can get it right now for $722 without the anxiety of an auction. This one went almost an hour overtime. I'm sure LL is pleased with the extra revenue.

Sometimes I wonder if these auctions are rigged, i.e. if the bid is too low, management will use their "personal" account to bid up the price or win it to resell it later. I know ebayers get friends to bid their price up.

At least you can rest easy and not wonder what could have been :)