Beijing-Lhasa Train Travel Guide: Everything to Know

Traveling from Beijing to Lhasa by Qinghai-Lhasa Railway let people’s dream to feast heart and eyes with remarkable scenery of heavenly Tibet not be an illusion anymore. From the first running in 2006, the Train has formed a tight connection between Chinese central government with the remote Tibet region, and also transferred a great deal of travelers to have a taste of Beijing’s ancientness and prosperity, the charm of middle-area’ cities, the grandness of northwest regions as well as the marvelous beauty of holy Tibet.

Heading to the west and south west, you will be engaged by not only the higher and higher altitude but also the more and more enthralling sight. With our ultimate Beijing-Lhasa train travel guide, you’ll find useful information regarding Beijing-Lhasa train tours.

Why Travel from Beijing to Lhasa by Train?

Beijing-Lhasa Train Tours has no unearned reputation at all when you heard that someone uttered it is his lifetime dream, after all, the experience to take the longest and highest plateau railway to explore “ the place closest to the heaven” is quite precious to any one living far from Tibet.

Beijing has been take the first and most important stop for foreigners intending to visit China not only for its China-centered political statues throughout the ages but also its unique engaging appeal in culture and natural sight. As for the journey to the Chinese northwest region and Tibetan highland, you will witness the unspoken window views as any beautiful words are pale to depict real appearance of them.

Now, Chinaxiantour offers such amazing Beijing-Lhasa Train Tours to delight your Tibet travel. Moreover, Train Tour to Lhasa low down the possibility for causing altitude stress by the sudden altitude ascending for airplane. Overall, train tours to Lhasa from Beijing are much cheaper than tours by flights.

✔Recommended Beijing to Lhasa tours:

• 8 Days Beijing and Lhasa Tour by Overnight Train
• 11 Days Beijing and Tibet Everest Base Camp Tour
• 12 Days Beijing-Lhasa-Xian-Shanghai Tour

Disadvantages of Beijing-Lhasa Train Tours:

1. Staying over 40 hours on aboard may bring malaise to some people;
2. Getting a Beijing-Lhasa ticket is quite difficult to most people, especially in peak season, even if you book it one month ahead;
3. The direct Beijing-Lhasa pass by the highlights of the journey in the dark night due to its schedule.

Sound Alternative Choices to Avoid Those Shortages Cased on Our Rich Experience:

• Take flight to Xining where Qinghai-Tibet starts to run and then have about 22 hours by Xining-Lhasa Train to your destination. Thus, you little suffer from the too long train journey and won’t miss the highlight of train journey as those noble attractions are passed by in daytime. Meanwhile, a ticket for Xining-Lhasa is relatively easily to get compared with Beijing-Lhasa.
• Take Beijing-Xining trains for about 20 hours firstly and stay one or more days at Xining where you can visit some famous attractions likeQinghai Lake, Ta’er Lamasery and taste typical northwestern food. Afterwards, continue journey to Tibet by Xining-Lhasa train.
• Take direct Beijing-Lhasa train to come to Tibet and take flight back to Beijing or other inland cities, which will decrease the risk of altitude stress.

Among all the options above, the first one is the optimal as it could avoid as more as possible risk and shortage of direct Beijing-Lhasa Train Tours with a not-bad cost. The second one is free from the altitude stress and missing highlights but need more time. Of course, if you get rich time for your plan, this option is also worthy a favor. The last one should better be the fallback if the first two options fail to meet your condition as there is still flaws existing with it.

✔Recommended tours:

• 7 Days Xining and Lhasa Tour by Qinghai Tibet Railway
• 6 Days Classic Xining and Lhasa Tour by Train
• 10 Days Chengdu – Xi’an – Xining – Lhasa Private Tour

Information Regarding Beijing-Lhasa Train

Both Z21 from Beijing to Lhasa and Z22 from Lhasa to Beijing are daily launched. The major stations of the trains are Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Lanzhou, Xining, Nagchu and Lhasa. Following detailed information about the trains should help a lot if you are intended to plan a Tibet train tour from Beijing.

Three Seat Options of the Train

There are three sorts of options on the train to Lhasa, soft sleepers combined with hard sleepers and hard seat. Considering the tour in Tibet need a good physical condition, the hard sleepers with long term toil on aboard are not suggested in case of causing more serious altitude stress. Hard & soft sleepers engage the listed merits and demerits as following, which sheds a light on travelers’ decision about transportation based on own condition.

Hard sleeper

• Cheaper;make friends easily with other passengers to kill time on aboard
• 6 berths in an open coach without door; relatively noisy; smaller room and berth space; less private space & belongings safety

Soft sleeper

• 4 berths in a carriage with open to confirm private space relatively; more luxurious, cozy quiet, and comfortable; more roomy space for each passenger; lower risk for safety of belongings
• Much more expensive

Soft sleepers earn higher recommendation for the all advantages above according to the successfully operated Beijing-Lhasa Train Tours. We kindly suggest so because Tibet locates in the highest plateau of the world and covered by the thinner oxygen, common people used live in the plain or place with relatively lower altitude need to adjust a good physical and sleeping conditions from the moment you step on the train. After all, safety is always in the primary position in traveling, which also is our basic philosophy.

The Equipment and Food on the Train

1. The trainsare well equipped with the modern and convenient facilities which are introduced into Chinese, Tibetan language and English.
2. Although most infrastructure are introduced by English, foreigners may have some problems in ordering meals or something like that when the serving stuff can speak English, so you are suggested to download a translation software which will help a lot.
3. All the carriages are installed with charging devices and oxygen supplement outlets.
4. You are suggested to bring some food and fruit yourself, such as instant noodles, ham sausage, chocolates and apples. Surely, the dining car offers the typical Chinese meals and some snack foods & fruits to the customers.

How to Book Beijing-Lhasa Train Ticket

As there is only single one train daily launched from Beijing to Lhasa and the more and more rapid demands of Tibet Train Tours, hard-to-get tickets of Beijing-Lhasa Train is always the first concerns for people planning Tibet travel throughout the whole year, seeming much more serious in peak season (July to October).

Usually, online tickets booking and train station & tickets agency booking are the major channels to get Beijing-Lhasa tickets. The physical outlets need you wait in a long queue but hardly ensure you get a ticket successfully with the same price of online because the price tends to fluctuate according to market demand. Online booking permits you the fixed price but forces you to snatch the tickets with a huge number of individual customers and travel agencies in a grim situation. In addition, buying train tickets would not be very easy and simple for foreigners if they don’t speaking Chinese or understand little about the booking website.

When considering the real conditions of Tibet Train Tour which has problems of hard tickets booking and Tibet Permit demanding, the package of Tour + Train Tickets Booking by a professional travel agency is apparently the first recommended choice for the individual travelers. Firstly because that travelers usually need to join in tour of a tourist company then they can get Travel Permit. Secondly because that many travel agencies offer only tour & ticket package but no single booking service, and even a few provide this service, they would charge quite higher service fee to the customers.

Chinaxiantour offers both Tour + Tickets Booking Package and Only Tickets Booking Service to the customers in the market, we forever try our best to provide the rich and excellent service and most reasonable price for our customers. We are happy to make the impossible into possible and let each of our guest please all of himself/herself in the Beijing-Lhasa Train Tour.

Keep Reading:

• Chengdu-Lhasa Train Travel Guide: Everything to Know
• Chongqing-Lhasa Train Travel Guide
• Guangzhou-Lhasa Train Travel Guide
• Shanghai-Lhasa Train Travel Guide
• Xian-Lhasa Train Travel Guide

Popular Tibet Tours:

• 5 Days Lhasa Namtso Lake Tour
• 8 Days Lhasa to Everest Base Tour
• 11 Days Tibet and Silk Road Tour by Train from Xian