Sacred Yamdrok Lake and Namsto Lake Bike Tour in Tibet

Participant will need to be in Chengdu city before starting this trip; our tour guide of this tour will meet you on Day1 and then giving a short brief of this tour. We will discuss the detailed tour planning for catching up the flight on Day2 and have a simple walk in Chengdu.

In order to have a good recovery for your tired trip and a better adaption living so quickly on highland, we will have a non-cycling visit of Lhasa as normal groups. The capital of Tibet province is very small if you compare it with Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou. The city is a holy center even for every Tibetan and worth for a good visit. The world here is unique as there is nobody else, people here with prayers wheel, the prayers flags on while tower, temples, normal houses and everywhere. You feel a big differences even they could not say any English. We will visit the Potala Palace – the most famous symbolic living library for treasures and culture and the Jokhang Temple today.

Test our bikes and have a warming up cycling for less than 45KM around the nearby area of Lhasa city. Riders will definitely feel a big change on your breathing and the stepping and find our strength and power goes quickly by no reason just because high altitude. We will cycle along the meandering Lhasa River and try to adapt the area with ‘only climb up or downhill’. Have a good rest today as we are going to start our cycling formerly tomorrow. Our guide will offer you lot of advises on food and the tips while cycling on highland, helping you avoid lot of potential risks.

The real cycling distance today is very flexible but we suggest you do the last 60KM as it’s the most beautiful part for today, and it’s of medium difficulty. We will not waste too much energy on the first half of the distance as the road outside Lhasa city is not so nice and effected a little by some construction cars, and also people are hard to finish the 30KM climbs so it’s not suggested. We are possible to start our cycling when near the high-pass of Gangbala Mountain, we finish the last climbs to the top of the mountain and find the Yamdrok Lake is there as an elegant young lady.

Enjoy the short but splendid downhill and reach the lake side, build your own Mani pile (the Tibetan believe those pile of stones brings us luck and healthy life) before catching up our cycles. We bike along the lake on very well-pave asphalt road, the sunlight is reflected and blinking as there are lot of diamond on the lake. A typical view of grassland with yaks, horses, Tibetan goats are into our eyes and makes our cycling like a dream. We arrive at Nangarze county and stay here overnight.

The distance 102KM online you see now includes the first 30KM climbs on our bikes if you want to finish the whole cycle, the climb is less difficult than yesterday but it is a very long cycling slightly up before the rest 72KM, so if you are less experienced in cycling long-distance climbs, it is suggested to skip it.

We head out in front of the while snow mountain and meet and say goodbye to local Tibetans who have to get up very early for busy labor works. After hours of cycling/driving up along the Himalaya mountain valleys, we reach the familiar prayer flags on the high-pass again. Continued with a downhill and the scenic spot of Karuola Glacier is on our right hand. We continue our biking along the abandon ancient house and some reservoirs, challenged by some short climbs and finally arrives at Jiangzi – a small city with a large old city palace, optional visit of it can be arranged if we arrive Gyangze early.

Biking the whole 93KM today is available as we are mainly cycling on flat or slightly down. Passing by small Tibetan temples and villages makes us seeing lot of interesting things quite diverse from your country or even other cities in China. Kids are expecting and smiling to you on the balcony, looks like we are the hero; the excreta from the yaks are attached and built as the wall for the courtyard of local Tibetans, and it is also being used as the fuel to make a fire. Few manors owned by local landowner are still there within this area, which is special and regarded as some extra visit during our cycling today.

It’s possible that we have to skip the climbing distance as it is much longer than you can imagine. Therefore we are possible only cycle the first 60KM and some downhill riding today. The meandering river accompanies us when we cycle. After the cycle and lunch, we will be transferred again with our supporting van; jumping and avoiding the two super big mountains and finish our cycles on downhill through the hot geothermal resources areas near Yangpachen, therefore, a enjoy of hot springs today is available.

The Namsto Lake is the second biggest lake in Tibet, also the third biggest salt water lake in China. Today will be another day facing big climbs so we use our car and mix with some cycles in the most worth areas during the way. We will reach an altitude over 5000meter on the high-pass of the mountain before driving downhill to Namsto town and seeing the sunset on the snow mountains and the highest salt water lake in the world .

We continue our short cycle and visit around the lake and then transfer with our bikes back to Damxung county for a simple rest before driving long-distance back to Lhasa.

Being transferred back to Lhasa city and prepare for the departure and final rest and visit the holy province. Spend couple of hours walking around the street and try the traditional Tibetan food for lunch or dinner completes our memorable journey to the west.

Please book room and flight on your own for the returning from Guangzhou, the economy class ticket flying from Lhasa to Guangzhou is included on the tour fee.