How to travel on the Tibet-Qinghai Railway
There’s a lot of buzz right now about China’s brand-new railway from Lhasa to Xinning, the new Tibet–Qinghai railway which is now the highest railway in the world. If you’ve been trying to find general information and information on how to make a booking and thinking there’s not much available, you’d be right. At the moment, it’s very hard to book. Never fear, I recently travelled on the railway and have all the on the ground information.
What is the Tibet-Qinghai Railway?
The Tibet-Qinghai railway is designed to link the Tibetan plateau with mainland China. Currently, the line begins at Xining and terminates at Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The line is in the process of being extended further west in Tibet, but currently ends at Lhasa. The train departs daily and has connections at Xining to many other Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Xi’an, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
We now, that is a can of worms. Most Chinese trains can be booked online through various apps and websites. The most popular is Trip.com. The best way to book this one, however, is unfortunately through a Chinese travel agency. I say unfortunately, as Chinese travel agencies are fairly incompetent, and you need to entrust the buying of your ticket to someone else who is likely to make a mistake… as I unfortunately found out. The railway is very popular at the moment, and it is actually easier to get tickets departing from Lhasa, rather than tickets which arrive in Lhasa.
Don’t be fooled though, there is a reason for that. One which was not made clear to me prior to me making the decision to travel from Lhasa, rather than to Lhasa. In order to enter Tibet, you need a permit. To collect said permit if you are travelling by air, you need to arrive via a mainland Chinese city to collect the original permit which can be sent to your hotel, or at a push picked up from a travel agency representative while you’re in transit. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t recommend the later option at all. The permit can not be sent out of China and having the original to show at the airport when you board your flight to Lhasa is mandatory.
If you get the train, you can show an electronic copy and that’s fine. If this information had been provided to me prior to booking the ticket, I certainly would have chosen traveling by train to Lhasa via Xi’an and Beijing (which I did on the return) rather than a 24-hour transit in Kunming (which was both expensive and as it turns out, unnecessary) in order to collect the original permit.
In order to get a ticket, it is advised to be flexible on the class required. Give the agency a preference, but tell them you will be happy with any ticket. Please see below for class descriptions. Unlike regular Chinese trains when go on sale between 4-weeks and 2-weeks prior to departure, the Tibet-Qinghai railway only goes on sale 48 hours prior to departure. So it is advisable to have a plan in place in case your agency isn’t lucky enough to get tickets for you.
The experience
There are several types of ticket you can get for this train. Seating, which is just a seat. Hard sleeper, which is a rustic compartment with 4-beds and soft-sleeper. Soft-sleeper is a 4-berth compartment with soft beds, in theory. The beds in China are all pretty hard, so the ‘hard-sleeper beds must be like concrete. Do be aware that there is no way to secure either a top or bottom bunk specifically. You get what you are given, so if you are unable to climb into the top bunk via the use of a little pull out ladder, I would suggest this trip may not be for you.
On arrival at Lhasa station you will need to find the waiting room assigned to your trains departure. The big Chinese train stations should be thought of more like airports, and the waiting rooms as gates. Lhasa is no different in this regard. When your train boards, there will be a mad rush to get through the gates. You will need your passport and a copy of your ticket (electronic copy is fine).
You will board your train; the destination will be marked on the side of the cars. Be warned this can be deceptive. My train said “Lhasa – Guangzhou” on the side of the carriages, but actually terminated at Xining. The people going to Guangzhou had to change (as did we all) and the Guangzhou train had the same number as our Lhasa – Xining train. Years of experience catching trains in China, and this is the first time I’ve seen something like this.
When you board the conductor will come around after departure to check your tickets. No one on this train speaks English as far as staff are concerned, this is very important because if you have a problem and don’t speak Mandarin or have access to a translation app, you won’t be able to communicate with anyone. Remember also, that good old Google won’t work in China, and they have upped their firewall security since the pandemic. Even the best VPN is now unreliable. I would suggest downloading and setting up AliPay and using the inbuilt translator.
Before you depart, make sure you yourself have checked your ticket goes to the right place. For example, I was supposed to have a ticket from Lhasa to Xi’an, but in fact the agency had only booked me a ticket to Xining! I was lucky I had a guy in the compartment with me from San Francisco who spoke both English and Mandarin as he was able to translate for the conductor who told me I didn’t have a ticket for my entire journey. The tickets are all in Chinese characters so can’t be easily read by westerners. My suggestion is to run them through the translation app on AliPay before departure and to make sure you have a Chinese SIM card for emergencies like this. I was able to call the agency, and they were able to rectify the issue in a manner of speaking. More on that later.
The scenery on the trip is just magical. Snow capped mountains, rivers, lakes and of course yaks a plenty! Once you get settled in, it’s just lovely to sit back, put on some music and watch the scenery. If you’re into the more social side of getting the train, you could try to make friends with your bunk mates, if they’re younger you’ll probably find they want to chat to you to practice their English.
The journey from Lhasa to Xining takes approximately 22 hours. The train I took left at 12:30pm and arrived at 10:30am the next morning.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The agency I booked through advised I wouldn’t have to change trains to get to Xi’an. Only that they had to book me a separate ticket (due to their mistake) from Xining to Xi’an. This meant I would have to change bunks at Xining and move to the next compartment. Could have been worse, right? Well, it was worse, because the train actually terminated at Xining and everyone had to change trains. Luckily, I had my new friend who was bi-lingual, and he was able to ask the conductor so I was prepared (although frustrated) to change when the time came. There were also only 20 minutes between the trains, so if I hadn’t been prepared, I may have missed the connection.
When I complained to the travel agency about being advised that I wouldn’t have to change trains, they said sometimes you have to change and sometimes you don’t have to change and there is no way for them to know if you have to change or not. Well, one, you should have told me that instead of telling me I definitely didn’t have to change and two, well… I’m not sure I buy that.
My Advice?
Book at your peril! The Tibet-Qinghai railway is a lovely journey, but make sure you ask all the questions of the agency you’re booking through. Take notes from this article, I didn’t know what questions I should be asking at the time and made the mistake of assuming that because I was booking through a travel agency everything would work out fine, so I let my guard down. I unfortunately spent the first part of this amazing journey trying to sort out problems and being very nervous.
The only way to really enjoy this journey I think is to go in with maximum flexibility and a sense of both adventure and humour.
Kristina Wilson – Inverted Atlas – Owner
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