Our Clients Kate and Judy from UK joined in a Tibet group tour travelling from Beijing to Lhasa by train, and then from Lhasa to Mount Everest Base Camp in October, 2011. After returning to their own country, they wrote down their trip and kindly shared it with us. Last Month, October of 2011. I finally realized my dream to visit the holy city, Lhasa and Mount Everest Base Camp. I and my friend, Judy took a train ride from Beijing to Lhasa, to experience the world's highest railway. We joined in a Beijing to Lhasa train group tour offered by Tibettravel.org. It was really a great train trip for my life. Thanks for our trip advisor, Tony who is really helpful and professional.
We arrived at Beijing around 5:10pm on October 9 and had a simple dinner in KFC at Beijing Airport for we had to arrive in train station 1 hour and a half before the train departured. And then we took a taxi to the Beijing west railway station. It took us about an hour to get to the railway station. We were shocked by the atmosphere at the station. In the dim light all you could see were thousands of people in the square, either waiting for arrivals or on their way out. Some of them were just like, with heavy backbags.
There was a special waiting room for passengers from Beijing to Lhasa by train. We spent about half an hour in that crowded waiting room, where we found something interesting that the locals rush towards the door wanting to be first through and about a thousand Chinese and Westerners jostling for position. As a fully ticketed train, we're not quite sure of the benefit of joining the crush, but decide to play along. It took us about one hour to check in for it was really crowded and complicated for foreigners to board the train from Beijing to Lhasa. Our Chinese visa and Tibet travel permit were checked carefully when checking in. Fortunately, we had a good preparation about that under the instruction of our trip advisor. The Beijing to Lhasa train, T27 departs from the Beijing West Railway Station at 8:09pm punctually.
For the Beijing to Lhasa train trip is really a long journey. Following our trip advisor's advice, we chose soft sleeper berth. One key difference between the soft sleeper and hard sleeper is that you will be four to a compartment in the former section while six in the latter one. The soft sleeper is ok except there is nowhere to sit except on the beds. It is not very convenient if the person on the lower bunk doesn't want you to sit there. Fortunately, my friend was just on the lower bunk and she allowed me to sit on her bed.
We were so excited about the coming two nights across the Tibetan plateau. The Beijing to Lhasa Train takes about 44 hours to complete the 3753 kilometer journey from Beijing to Lhasa, gaining altitude as it goes, and passing a maximum height of more than 5,000 metres! This is so high that oxygen is–allegedly–pumped into the carriages through an oxygen system to assist the acclimatization of passengers and to make the journey more comfortable. Certainly, we heard something hissing from the oxygen outlets and we don't seem to be suffering too badly from altitude, although the true test will come when we get off the train. We opted not to take the altitude medication we brought with us, taking instead a wait-and-see approach to our suffering. We have one day to acclimatize in Lhasa, so we're hopeful we can remain drug-free!
The Beijing to Lhasa train is totally sealed, windows don't open (with the much-needed exception of the bathrooms!). In order to save energy for the stunning scenery that we knew from Internet, we decided to have a good rest. We slept quite well as the lights were put out for us at 10:00pm encouraging us into an early slumber and it was very quiet in the compartment. Reveille is at about 6:30am, prompting the convergence of about 60 people on two toilets and three sinks. To be fair, the 'western style' toilets up in the soft sleepers aren't much as good as descriptions on some websites.
I had some breakfast - noodles - and sat around most of the day talking to Judy and watching the scenery go by. As you might expect, the scenery got progressively more impressive as we advanced towards Lhasa. The lush green lands, with undulating hills, spotted with yak, long-haired sheep and horses. The distant snow-peaked mountains reminded us exactly that the train was running at a higher altitude. Along the way, we saw only a smattering of Tibetan villages formed by groups of concrete huts, and the only reason we knew they were Tibetan was the five color flags adorning roofs. In some areas, construction was intense. The railroad itself was clearly an enormous undertaking, and this wasn't just a case of building railtracks: the whole route was lines by paved gutters and metal or concrete fences, as if every inch of the track was subject to detailed scrutiny.
Actually we had very little inofrmation about what we were doing, but there was a written running commentary in Chinese, with little updates in English occasionally. We found out we were usually going at 66 km/hr and the elevation at the time. It also told us the next stop, of which there were very few. At one point we were able to see that we were going all the way north to connect to the track that would then take us west.
The Beijing to Lhasa train is totally sealed, windows don't open (with the much-needed exception of the bathrooms!). In order to save energy for the stunning scenery that we knew from Internet, we decided to have a good rest. We slept quite well as the lights were put out for us at 10:00pm encouraging us into an early slumber and it was very quiet in the compartment. Reveille is at about 6:30am, prompting the convergence of about 60 people on two toilets and three sinks. To be fair, the 'western style' toilets up in the soft sleepers aren't much as good as descriptions on some websites.
I had some breakfast - noodles - and sat around most of the day talking to Judy and watching the scenery go by. As you might expect, the scenery got progressively more impressive as we advanced towards Lhasa. The lush green lands, with undulating hills, spotted with yak, long-haired sheep and horses. The distant snow-peaked mountains reminded us exactly that the train was running at a higher altitude. Along the way, we saw only a smattering of Tibetan villages formed by groups of concrete huts, and the only reason we knew they were Tibetan was the five color flags adorning roofs. In some areas, construction was intense. The railroad itself was clearly an enormous undertaking, and this wasn't just a case of building railtracks: the whole route was lines by paved gutters and metal or concrete fences, as if every inch of the track was subject to detailed scrutiny.
Actually we had very little inofrmation about what we were doing, but there was a written running commentary in Chinese, with little updates in English occasionally. We found out we were usually going at 66 km/hr and the elevation at the time. It also told us the next stop, of which there were very few. At one point we were able to see that we were going all the way north to connect to the track that would then take us west.
The Chinese were clearly enjoying the scenery as much as we were. At the most scenic points, we tried our best to take pictures through the train windows well-designed for the Beijing to Lhasa Train, so the quality was a kind of poor.
We had two stops during the day where we could exit the train and walk around, and this was a treat. We could feel it was getting colder and that we were on our way! One stop was even for an hour so we were able to walk a bit and took some pictures with higher quality.
Food on the train from Beijing to Lhasa was good. Food carts offering drinks, noodles and even shrink-wrapped fresh fruit constantly travelling up and down the train. The buffet car was bright and spacious, and quickly became our favourite hang-out. On the first evening, we ordered the dinner based on the highly scientific method of choosing what the Chinese on the table next to us had ordered! And so we enjoyed beef with garlic stems, chicken with spicy vegetables, pork with egg and shrimps with cabbage! The price for our feast was about RMB25 each.
Before arriving in Xining station, we went to the dinning car and served us a cup of coffee. We met a Chinese girl there who could speak a little English. She told us that the train would run along the Qinghai Lake for a long time after Xining Station and get a point where the train nearly got touch with the water in the lake. Unfortunately, we got no chance to witness that point. But we did have an eyeful of the beautiful Qinghai Lake. The next stop would be Golmud. But it was getting dark as we advanced to that station.
When we arrived at that station, it was around 1:40am. At that time, we could see stars all over the sky. The train made a stay there twenty minutes. We found many vendors were busying with selling their goods to the passengers on the train to Lhasa from Beijing. It was said that our Tibetan Plateau tour really started from Golmud. The train restarted to run in the night and the compartment became quiet again.
When we woke up, a different sight came into out eyes. The desolate Gobi desert had no vitality, but it was amazing that the train was running in the Kunlun Mountains hardly along the S-shaped Qinghai-Tibet Railway. With the altitude became higher and higher, from 3500m to 4100m, the scenery also became more and more wonderful. The second day journey started with breathtaking snow mountains. And we were getting more closer to Tibet. After passing by the Tanggula Pass, the highest point of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, we were finally in Tibet. We could not help to shooting through window as we were really shocked by the sights out of the train window. We enjoyed spectacular scenery for the whole second day before arriving in Lhasa at 4pm.
Overall the Beijing to Lhasa train trip was so wonderful for the train was quite comfortable as it was well designed for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. And the service and food on the train were excellent. We also had a good time in Lhasa and enjoyed the trip from Lhasa to Mountain Everest Base Camp.
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