My Photo Album
Tibet Tour April/May 2001

Section 2: From Golmud to Lhasa
 

Map Golmud-Lhasa

source: CIA map, available from the University of Texas at Austin
(link to detailed map)


This trip on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in a dirty, clapped-out Chinese sleeper bus 1115 km across the Tibetan plateau takes between 26 and 50 hours, in our case two nights and one day. 

 

Map Qinghai-Tibet Highway  


Breakdown in the middle of Nowhere
Our bus during one of several repair stops at a small Tibetan village on the flat, barren Tibetan plateau at an altitude of 4500 m.

 

Photo Tanggu-la pass 1 


Once in a Lifetime Trip
The flat Tangu-la pass is with 5180 m the highest point on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. Most passengers in the bus felt weak and wobbly, and some had to breath from oxygen bottles, which were sold in Golmud or in the bus for the double price. 

 

Photo Tanggu-la pass 2  


Tangu-la pass
This photo shows me and one of the three bus drivers on the mountain pass. The white or colored rags in the background are prayer flags, as they can be seen on every pass in Tibet.

 

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© Wolfgang Schaefer, Seoul, 2003-2005; last update: May 23, 2005