Is it safe to travel to Tibet?
 

My husband & I were planning to travel to Lhasa, Tibet in October of this year. Is it safe?

Thanks.

From what?

Biggest threat to visitors is altitude sickness. Can't think of many other issues.

The latest independence struggle between Tibet and China

Is there something new? There hasn't been much of a "struggle" in the last 10-15 years. Lhasa is seeing lots of tourists - Chinese and foreign - these days and I've not heard of any issue for a long time.

Thanks, that's what I thought. I haven't heard anything recently. A friend of ours who lives in China & USA might be pulling our leg.

Check this address for places the US state department think need warnings.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p...w/tw_1764.html

As in many foreign countries, it is best to mind your political opinions. ((*))

We heard reports that the gov.t has closed the border into Tibet for tourists. We hope to visit Lhasa in September. Does anyone have an update on this situation?

I'm also planning a trip to Tibet this summer. I'm surprised that nobody on the forum seems to have heard about the recent event in Tibet that seems to have made thigns a little more complicated for foreign travelers. It's quite an active topic these days on the Lonely Planet forum.

Here's an excerpt I found:

Tourists face tougher restrictions in Tibet

Tourists face tougher restrictions in Tibet
timesonline.co.uk

China has tightened restrictions on travel by foreigners in the restive Himalayan region of Tibet after five American activists unfurled a banner at the foot of Mount Everest to protest against the staging of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The new rules came into effect after the week-long May Day holiday, according to an official with the state-run China Travel Service in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

She said: “We can’t let foreign tourists just go anywhere by themselves. In the past they could be left alone to travel independently as they wanted for a few days. Now this is not allowed any more.”

The restrictions will also stop foreigners applying for a permit to enter the region from the office of the Tibetan travel bureau in the southwestern city of Chengdu, from where there are direct flights to Lhasa. All travel must now be approved by the head office in Lhasa, which operates under police supervision.

The official added: “Management is tighter because of the Americans on Everest. All permits must be issued here in Lhasa.”

The rules are similar to those that existed in the early 1990s when the entire region was effectively closed to foreigners, except for a tiny number of officially organised tour groups. That crackdown was prompted by a series of violent demonstrations, mostly led by Tibetan monks, against Chinese rule and by the imposition of martial rule after riots that swept Lhasa in the late 1980s.

There has been a gradual easing of restrictions in recent years although Tibet remains the only region of China where all foreign tourists must obtain a travel permit to gain entry.

Recently it had been simpler for tourists to pick up the permits in cities such as Chengdu and Zhongdian near the Tibetan border before boarding a plane or hiring a vehicle, or in Beijing and Golmud - now on the railway line to Lhasa that opened less than a year ago.

Tibetan authorities had hoped that the new train service would boost tourism. But the new rules could cool the enthusiasm of foreign tourists if they are limited to visiting Lhasa and are then forced to complete complex procedures in order to leave the city, even as part of a tour group.

The five Americans were detained at the Chinese base camp for Everest last month. They were protesting against plans to carry the Olympic torch to the summit of the world’s highest mountain en route to the opening of the Games in Beijing on August 8 next year.

Their banner read: "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008", a play on the official slogan of the Games "One World, One Dream". After their arrest they were expelled from the country.

Robert Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University, said: “It may seem strange if five students with a camera can have such an impact on Chinese policy. But in fact restrictions have been increasing in Tibet over the last year, with intensified campaigns against 'the Dalai', renewed bans on religion for all officials, and recently public warnings about ‘western hostile forces’.

“I think that the issue with these US students was not so much that they staged a protest in Tibet, but that they staged it in the middle of a rehearsal for the Olympic ceremonies. The fear of embarrassment during the Olympics seems to be increasingly a paramount concern for officials.”

Beijing has long been nervous of campaigners in Tibet and from overseas, who argue that the devoutly Buddhist region, where most people pledge loyalty to the exiled Dalai Lama, is not a part of China.

Lhasa first opened to foreign tourists in the mid-1980s and quickly became an alternative destination for young backpackers seeking a more exotic destination after visiting Kathmandu. When a riot erupted in Lhasa in September 1988, the Chinese authorities accused the numerous foreigners staying in the city of stirring up anti-Chinese feeling and said that they had been involved in the demonstrations by ethnic Tibetans. Travel restrictions were imposed at once, effectively closing off Tibet for several years.

Printable Version | published May 14, 2007

The best time to visit Tibet is from march to september. Actually, if you only have time in October, that is OK, but you'd better prepare youselves fully. There are many aspects that you can prepare for, because of the limited time, I can not list them one by one, if you want to get more information, you can launch http://www.itourchina.com.cn I promise you can get much more useful information from it, especially from the travel tips from it.

The last link doesn't work.

I found out the hard way about the new restrictions into Lhasa. I was traveling throughout China shortly after the May day holiday (and apparently shortly the everest incident). We were told by some travel agents that we could not get the permit, but they wouldn't explain why. We headed to Chengdu where and got permits from the Traffic Hotel. This place had been recommended by several travel guides and they had no problem issuing us permits. In a few days we found out why- they had issued us fake permits. We had no problem entering Lhasa but around 11pm one night the Police showed up at our hotel room and informed us that we had fake permits. They escorted us to another room and interrogated us for about 2 or 3 hours about how we had acquired them. Luckily I was able to explain to them that we had no way of knowing that we had acquired fake permits. They ended up letting us go after they had gathered enough information to go after the traffic hotel. We found out later that several other people had similar experiences that week. They let us stay in Lhasa (which was wonderful, such a cool place) but the encounter was pretty nerve-wracking just the same. My advice is to stay on top of the permit siutation on a day-to-day basis before you go. If you go in a group, you shouldn't run into any problems as long as you make sure that they are a reputable operator.

And obviously, STEER CLEAR of the traffic hotel in Chengdu. They might have once been reputable, but once they lost the ability to run their bread and butter Tibet permit business it seems as if they would rather sell fake permits than close up shop. Just my two cents

IMO the subject is active on the Lonely Planet site because a lot of people on that board travel overland into Tibet and that is where most of the restrictions are aimed at. Most Tibetans travel overland into Tibet as well and the restrictions are aimed at them, to keep out the freedom-fighters, esp those coming in overland from Dharmasala in India. Well-heeled foreign tourists flying in from PRC destinations are not the target of the restrictions.

If you aren’t planning on protesting in Tibet you don’t have any concerns, IMO. You are not going to be the target of police hassles, etc. They welcome your tourist dollars.

And I take issue with the comment that Tibet is the “only place where you need a permit to travel to”. Not 5 miles from where I am sitting in Hong Kong you need a permit to go into the zone between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. You can pass through it on the way to the PRC, but you can’t stop off and stay there and tour around without having a special pass, which is very difficult to get. It is to help with border control between the PRC and Hong Kong to keep PRC nationals out of Hong Kong. I am not a big fan of what the PRC is doing in Tibet, but the lack of accurate information provided by the media does not help either.

NO - the fact that you can ask the question implies that you might find it dodgy. How are you travelling - independently?

Or with a group?