[Betzgi's cycle tours]: Route infos Tibet: Shigatse

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Tuesday, 7. February 2012

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Detailed infos about special routes

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My Asian Odyssey

Kailash! ...a pilgrimage

: Suge La

3 possible routes between the two biggest towns in central Tibet. Plenty of choices...

Overview map

Routen

There are three differnt route to get from Shigatse to Lhasa:

Following the Brahmaputra

280km all paved and more or less flat. But that is not why we came to Tibet, is it?

The southern route

: Yamdrok Lake

This route should be mostly paved by now. But there is great scenery along the route passing the beautiful Yamdrok lake, high passes Gampa La(4790m) & Khari La(5045m) and Gyantse a nice town with the biggest stupa of Tibet.

The northern route

The remotest of all routes. Mostly not paved but good road and little traffic. Cycling Suge La (5435m) is great with good views of Jomo Gantse(7043m) and as reward you can soak in the hot springs of Yangpachen. I will describe this route.

Side trips

Of course there are a lot of possible side trips here too...

Hot springs of Yangpachen

8km before you meet the Golmud-Lhasa highway you pass the hot springs of Yangpachen. The place itself is not very nice with ugly industry buildings but you will soon forget that when you lie in the hot pool...

Entry is 40Y. It should be possible to sleep here, but was not when I was there.

: Largen La, Namtso lake in the background

Namtso lake

Rather easy side trip to the second biggest saltwater lake of Tibet. Brand new paved road all the way to the lake. To get back you have to take the same road.

The clima in this part of Tibet is wetter then in the rest. When I cycled over Largen La by the end of october there was already lots of snow!

Kloster Tsurphu

: Tsurphu monastery

Das Kloster Tsurphu ist der Sitz des Karmapa. Der momentan 17. Karmapa (geb. 1985) wird gleichermassen vom Dalai Lama und von den chinesischen Behörden anerkannt. Er war der ranghöchste Lama der in Tibet wohnte, bevor auch er 1999 ins Exil nach Dharamsala floh.

Es sind zwar blos 24km bis zum Kloster, diese aber nicht unterschätzen! Die Fahrt ist besonders im zweiten Teil eine ganz ruppige und steile Sache, lohnt sich aber auf jeden Fall.

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