1. If you are not a Chinese citizen, you can not travel to Tibet alone. It is illegal to do so. You have to find a Chinese travel agent for your Tibet tours.
2. You will need a “permit to enter Tibet” from the TTB (Tibet Tourism Bureau). Without this permit, you can not buy a plane ticket to Tibet.
3. How to get this permit? You’ll need to provide your personal information (name,citizenship,age,sex,occupation,passport number), your planned route to Tibet, a basic schedule,purpose of your trip,contact phone number, etc to the local Chinese travel agent or the local office of the TTB. They will need the clear copies of your passport and visa too. You can fax or email these copies to the agent or local TTB office. The TTB need 2 or 3 days to process your application.
4. How to get in?
(1). By air, You can fly to Lhasa. But it is risky to fly to Tibet from a much lower altitude city because of the quick transition.(Altitude sickness) You can use a traditional Tibet medicine named “HongJingTian”. It can alleviate your altitude sickness.If you are in Sichuan Province,flying from Chengdu to Lhasa is the easiest option.
(2). By train, The Qinghai to Tibet train began to operate in July 2006. It took less than 48 hours to travel from Beijing to Tibet by train. The cheapest ticket is only 389 RMB but you should realize that it is not so comfort to travel by train in China( So crowded and noisy ).I don’t recommend this type of transportation. The only advantage is that you can slowly adapt to Tibet’s high altitude instead of a sudden transition of the altitude if you take the plane.
(3). By road, Forget it! This mode of transportation will cost you a few days and the road from Sichuan to Tibet is dangerous!!
By Shane Lee