{"id":11087,"date":"2013-03-03T00:25:23","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T16:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/?p=11087"},"modified":"2015-08-24T18:02:15","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T10:02:15","slug":"lhasa-namtso-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/tibet-travel\/lhasa-travel\/lhasa-namtso-road-trip","title":{"rendered":"Lhasa Namtso Road Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plan your Lhasa tour<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>? If time permits, you are highly recommended to have a one day round trip excursion to Namtso Lake from Lhasa. Lying between\u00a0Baingoin County of Nagqu Prefecture and\u00a0Damxung (Damshung) County of Lhasa Prefenture, Namtso Lake is located about 240km to the northwest of Lhasa city.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Namtso Lake literally means “the heavenly lake”, a mountain lake perched\u00a0on the north of the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range with a sea-level of\u00a04,718m and a surface area of 1,920 square kilometres.<\/p>\n

It is often quoted as the second largest salt lake (after Qinghai Lake) in China\u00a0and the highest salt lake of\u00a0the\u00a0size\u00a0in the world. Accompanied by the massive Nyainq\u00eantanglha range, Namtso Lake appears like a charming lady, the most stunning body of water in Tibet.<\/p>\n

The best season to visit Namtso Lake is between June and September. Normally starting from October and November, Namtso Lake will be closed to tourists due to heavy snow. You may hire a SUV car with the help of\u00a0the staffers from your hotel or inn. The cheapest way is to join in a shared coach organized by the local travel agencies.<\/p>\n

You will find the coach tours of visiting Namatso Lake from most of the youth hostels or hotels in Lhasa. In addition, each morning, the seat-in coach will start from the\u00a0area by the White Pagoda on the\u00a0east gate of the Potala Palace around 7:00am.<\/p>\n

Natmaso Lake is mostly connected to Lhasa City by the National Highway No.109. The National Highway No.109 is totally\u00a03,901km long, connecting Beijing and Lhasa. The highway within the western Qinghai and Tibet from Golmud to Lhasa, is\u00a0locally called “Qinghai-Tibet highway”, which is paralled by the “Qinghai-Tibet Railway”.<\/p>\n

The Lhasa Namtso Lake\u00a0240km road trip takes about 5 hours. When you are driving from Lhasa (Elevation\u00a03650m), the altitude is getting higher and higher. At the driving distance of\u00a087km northwest of Lhasa, you will get to Yangbajing (Yangbajain) with an elevation of 3800m.<\/p>\n

Yangbajing is famous for the Yangbajain hot springs, which\u00a0have been\u00a0used to produce much of the electricity for the city of Lhasa.\u00a0If\u00a0you have spared time back from Namtso Lake, and want to\u00a0recharge your body and refresh brain, soak yourself in the magic and rewinding hot springs in Yangbajing.<\/p>\n

At Yangbajing, you will drive to the northeast direction\u00a0paralleled by\u00a0both the active Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the snow-capped Nyainq\u00eantanglha range. You will pass by the west section of Nyenchen Tanglha with\u00a0the highest peak in the range –\u00a0Mount Nyenchen Tanglha (Nyainq\u00eantanglha) (7162m).<\/p>\n

Your National Highway 109 drive will end at Damxung (Damshung) County at the driving distance of 160km from Lhasa. So at the Damxung (Damshung) County, you will get off the National Highway and start to cross the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range\u00a0through a surface road completed in 2005 connecting\u00a0Damxung County and Namtso Lake, a 25km some mountain road leading to the\u00a0Elevation stone at Lakenla \uff08Laken Pass\uff095190m, the highest point from Lhasa to Namtso Lake.<\/p>\n

At the\u00a0Elevation stone at Lakenla \uff08Laken Pass\uff095190m, usually travelers would be arranged to take a break before darting to the sapphire lake – Namtso Lake ( approx.another 30km). The entrance fee for the Namtso Lake is RMB 120.<\/p>\n

Namtso Lake\u00a0has five uninhabited islands. On the four sides of the lake stand four monasteries. There are also five peninsula protruding into the lake. On the north bank of the lake is the Zhaxi Peninsula,\u00a0which is the best spot for your\u00a0glimpse at the amazing view of the blue holy lake nestled under the white-capped Nyainq\u00eantanglha range.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to stay the night around Namtso Lake, the Zhaxi Peninsula is the only spot for overnight travelers staying in the tents provided by the local Tibetans.<\/p>\n

The weather at Namtso is subject to abrupt sudden change and\u00a0strong winds and snowstorms are very common across the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range.<\/p>\n

Last year in late October, we rented a SUV car driving from Lhasa to the\u00a0Elevation stone at Lakenla \uff08Laken Pass\uff095190m, where we had a distant view of the white and blue Namtso Lake. Though we were unable to approach the lake due to the heavy snow, we were still luckier than those tourists on a shared coach\u00a0who had to cancel their road trip on that day.<\/p>\n

We were driving along the National Highway No.109 (popularly known as\u00a0Qinghai-Tibet Highway)\u00a0paralleled both by the Qinghai-Tibet Railway\u00a0and\u00a0the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range.<\/p>\n

\n
\"We<\/a>
We were driving along the National Highway No.109<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway paralles the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
The backcountry Tibetan\u00a0villages are scattered on the south side of the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We\u00a0were entering the Namtso Lake Scenic Area.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"We<\/a>
We are entering the Namtso Lake Scenic Area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Getting off the National Highway 109, we were driving along the surface road crossing the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range..<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
Higher and higher, we were on the road sandwiched by the snow-capped peaks crossing the Nyainq\u00eantanglha range.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"n<\/a>
n the road sandwiched by the snow-capped peaks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A bit adventure to visit Namtso Lake in late October<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"A<\/a>
A bit adventure to visit Namtso Lake in late October<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The\u00a0Elevation stone at Lakenla \uff08Laken Pass\uff095190m was our last road trip destination, where we\u00a0had a distant view of the stunning Namtso Lake.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
Take a break<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"Take<\/a>
Take a break<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the road back<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"On<\/a>
On the road back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Any questions, just drop a line.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plan your Lhasa tour? If time permits, you are highly recommended to have a one day round trip excursion to Namtso Lake from Lhasa. Lying between\u00a0Baingoin County of Nagqu Prefecture and\u00a0Damxung (Damshung) County of Lhasa Prefenture, Namtso Lake is located about 240km to the northwest of Lhasa city. Namtso Lake literally means “the heavenly lake”,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,1067],"tags":[2162,2164,2163],"class_list":["post-11087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lhasa-travel","category-tibet-travel","tag-how-to-visit-namtso-lake","tag-lhasa-namtso-lake-day-trip","tag-namtso-lake-car-rental"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11087"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18441,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087\/revisions\/18441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tour-beijing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}