Plateau Photo Tours, which I co-own, will be hosting a Kham Tibet Overland Journey from June 8th to June 22nd, 2013. This adventure will take you through some of the most stunning scenerey and best preserved culture found on the Tibetan Plateau. Starting in Xining, the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau, we will fly to Jyekundo, the capital town of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the traditional Tibetan [...]
UPDATED 13 April 2013 Each year I do my best to keep up-to-date on the various travel regulations and restrictions across the Tibetan Plateau. Tibet, including the regions of Amdo and Kham, can sometimes be politically unstable. When areas and regions are unstable, the government (not travel agencies) either closes specific areas or imposes travel regulations, such as group travel. It is important to remember [...]
Getting a Chinese tourist visa is a fairly simple process. For many nationalities, including North Americans, EU citizens, UK citizens. Australians and New Zealanders, you can apply for a Chinese tourist visa at the Chinese embassy/consulate in your home country and in most Chinese embassies/consulates around the world. On the Chinese visa application, it asks for you to list the places in China that you plan [...]
As you are probably aware of by now, Lhasa and the rest of the Tibet Autonomous Region is closed indefinitely to foreign travelers (UPDATE: The region reopened in July 2012). There is no telling at this point when the area will reopen. Does that mean you need to cancel your upcoming trip to Tibet altogether? Not necessarily! It is important to remember that Tibet consists far more than just the Tibet Autonomous [...]
UPDATED October 30, 2012 This year has been a difficult year so far for those wanting to travel to Tibet, including the regions of Amdo and Kham. All areas were closed during March and some areas in Kham didn’t reopen until late April/early May. Here is the latest update on travel regulations and closures across the Tibetan Plateau (NB: This information is current at the time of writing. It is important [...]
It has now been 2 years since a devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the Qinghai part of Kham in April 2010. My family and I (wife and 2 children) were living in Jyekundo when the earthquake occurred. Though the official Beijing death toll stands at 2698, local government and police officials in Yushu prefecture all agree that the real death toll is around 20,000. [...]
Nangchen county ནང་ཆེན་རྫོང་ is one of 6 counties located in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the Qinghai Part of Kham. Though Nangchen is remote and underdeveloped, it is one of the most beautiful parts of Tibet and has some of the best preserved Tibetan culture remaining. Nangchen county covers 11,539 square kilometers/4455 square miles and has around 70,000 people with Tibetans [...]
For the 5th year in a row, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) will be closed to foreign travelers during the month of March. The closure will actually begin around February 20th and most likely will last until the end of March or the beginning of April. Though China usually claims that these closures are due to “bad weather”, in reality the region is closed because March is the anniversary of several [...]