Overland from Sichuan to Tibet – driving along the 318 Highway
The overland tour from Sichuan to Tibet can be viewed one of the word’s most dangerous, highest and punishing roads with driving from Sichuan basin of 800 meters above sea level to the Tibet Plateau of above 4000 meters, while the scenery along the way is the most stunning beautiful. As the Chinese travelers always say, ‘overlanding the Sichuan-Tibet 318 highway, Lhasa is not the destination, neither for Nyingchi, it is the 318 highway itself attracting the tourists.’
Xindu Bridge in Sichuan Province
the amazing scenery in Sichuan Province
The Road condition and vehicle tour-tibet.com use
The distance between Chengdu and Lhasa is 2142 kilometers, with 857 km spreading in Sichuan province and 1825 kilometers in Tibet. For sucessfully accomplishing this trip, a comparatively long time for preparation will be necessay, at least 15-20 days, since there will be lots of breakdowns, police barricades, constant delays, headaches and altitude-included vomit-stained windows.
The overland route: Chengdu – Ya’an – Kangding – Xindu Bridge – Yajiang – Kyitang – Batang – Mekong – Dzogang – Bangda – Pasho – Pomi – Bayi – Basum Tso – Lhasa
The pity is that permits for overland trip from Sichuan to Tibet, or Yunnan to Tibet, are not available to foreigners, and the most updated news is on 17, Dec 2014, if there is any changes in the permit policy, we will update here in the first minutes, so please check back with us, or feel free to contact us via contact@tour-tibet.com
There are two alternatives:
1.) You can go out to Manigago (Kham) from Chengdu, then turn north and drive round to Yushu – then cut across to the Qinghai Tibet hwy and go south to Lhasa. This is also an amazong route and is open to foreigners for now. The whole journey is by driving, not train or flight.
2.) If you really want to explore the Sichuan province, you can drive to Daocheng Yading, and then travel the Sichuan – Yunnan highway to Zhongdian where you can take the chance to experience the “South of the Clouds” boasting the highest degrees of diversity, both in people and landscapes, then fly directly to Lhasa.
For further information about the overland tour to Tibet, please drop a line to contact@tour-tibet.com and one of our travel experts will get back to you within 12 hours.
