Travel from Xining to Lhasa

As the closest capital city to Tibet and the starting city of the world famous Qinghai-Tibet Railway, Xining is a very important gateway city to Tibet. Located on the eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the upper reaches of Huangshui River, Xining is the political, economic, scientific and technological, cultural and traffic center of Qinghai Province and the east gate of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. As the most common passing channel of the ancient Silk Road, Xining has a profound cultural background as well as fantastic landscape. Just outside the city are many famous monasteries, national parks, and nomadic grasslands worth visiting.

Xining also provides different choices for travelers who want to travel to Lhasa from this city. Travelers can travel from Xining to Lhasa by train, by air, by car, by bike and even by foot.

Trains from Xining to Lhasa                                     

Traveling to Tibet by train has become a fashionable way among travelers for they will be on the highest railway in the world, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Since Xining is the starting point of this railway, all the trains to Tibet from mainland China stop here or start from here. The trains from other cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou usually stop at Xining train station for over 10 minutes. There are also two trains from Xining to Lhasa starting at this station every day. In the peak season of Tibet’s tourism, there might be one more train starting from Xining to Lhasa in order to release the load of the existing trains. It takes around 24 hours from Xining to Lhasa by train and costs about 1,000 RMB including the ticket fare and food onboard, but excluding the service fee charged by your travel agency who books the Tibet train tickets for you. You know, it is usually hard for individual travelers to get a sleeper berth ticket in the peak season as most train tickets are reserved by large travel companies.

Flights from Xining to Lhasa  

Currently, there are only two flights from Xining to Lhasa. One is Flight 3U8687 (A319) operated by Sichuan Airlines and the other is Flight TV9826 (A319) operated by Tibet Airlines. Both flights take 2.5 hours to fly to Tibet, which saves much time.

Qinghai-Tibet Highway

The Qinghai-Tibet Highway connecting Xining and Lhasa was the major link between these two cities before the operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Many domestic travelers travel to Tibet via this highway by car and bike. Some pilgrims even spend months to go to Lhasa on foot along this road.