2019 Aba Festival date has been confirmed in between February 17^th to 20^th. The 2019 Aba Festival Tour has been updated accordingly

Find out the travel information about Aba county

Source: Xinhua

Recently, the Lhasa helicopter travel route, which is operated by Lhasa Xueying General Aviation Co. Ltd., has been confirmed. The route is heliport–Liuwu Bridge– Intercontinental Hotel–heliport and the total flying time is about 12 to 15 minutes. From now on, Lhasa of Tibet officially open the air-travel

Besides, the Lhasa Xueying General Aviation Co. Ltd. are also engaged in emergency rescue, medical aid, and short-distance transportation.

Potala Palace Ticket New Policy has just been announced by the Potala Palace Management due to the rapidly growing number of tourists, that all entrance tickets will have to be booked in advance. In addition, the number of visitors is limited at different times of a day. All those institutions are made to minimize damage to the earth structure and to protect cultural relics in Potala Palace.

• The entrance tickets for Tour groups can be booked online one day earlier
• Individual travelers are required to get the entrance tickets at the ticketing office one day earlier

For the moment, the Potala Palace received 3,000 tourists on a daily basis, and the number of visitor has been increasing, by the time of the high travel season, the daily visitor to Potala palace may be over 10,000 people or more;

According to the Management for the Potala Palace that with the promotion of “winter tours in Tibet－enjoy the world’s third pole”, all A-class tourist attractions in Tibet are open to tourists and citizens for free from Feb 1^st to April 30^th.

Source : Xinhua

As part of efforts to preserve the 1,000-year-old epic, Four books about the Epic of King Gesar have been released, according to researchers in Tibet Autonomous Region.

The Epic of King Gesar has about 200 episodes and being believed to be the one of the world’s longest epics. It tells how an 11^th century Tibetan demigod king conquered his enemies and helped the ordinary people.

The epic has been passed down orally by singers, often illiterate herders or peasants from Tibet, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region or Qinghai Province (Previously Amdo ), who have often claimed they were spontaneously repeating the lines after a strange dream or serious illness.

The four new publications of King Gesar epic are chanted by three folk singers, said Tsering Phuntsog, the director of ethnic studies center in the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences.

One book is on the Tibetan mastiffs, two are about tribal wars, and the fourth is about how Gesar conquered a region and distributed gold to the people.

Each book is around 200,000 words. The books belong to a project called “Exclusive Renditions of Folk Artists on King Gesar,” which aims to publish 20 books, chanted by 14 artists. So far, 14 books have been published. Unlike the main stories of the epic, which are sung by various singers, the exclusive translation can only be told by one or two artists.

Transcription, recording and video-making of the stories started in 2009, some of the books are scheduled to be translated into Mandarin Chinese, according to Tsering Phuntsog.

The epic of King Gesar was listed as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.

The iconic of Tibet – the Potala Palace will be open to the public free of charge for three months, as authorities are striving to promote winter tourism.

Starting Feb. 1, entry to the palace will be free of charge for tourists as part of Tibet’s program – “Winter Tourism in Tibet”

The program is designed to help with local tourism development, and push economic growth in Tibet, said Wang Song-ping with the regional tourism development commission. The program also includes free admission to all other quality tourist attractions in the region, plus discounts or subsidies given to tourists in terms of hotels and transportation.

The Potala Palace was built by Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo in the 7^th century and expanded in the 17^th century by the 5^th Dalai Lama. The palace, a symbol of Tibetan Buddhism, was listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994.

The Tradition Tibetan Printing is now still existed in the monastic attached printing house, one of which is called Derge Printing house, and it is located in Derge County

View the process in the below small video

Source: Xinhua

Lhasa opens helicopter travel —
Tourists are now able to enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the plateau city of Lhasa, capital of Southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region, as the city has approved a helicopter travel service.

The municipal government confirmed on Monday that it has approved trial operations of the helicopter operated by Lhasa Xueying General Aviation Co Ltd.

Tseten Paldron, deputy general manager of the company, said that passengers can book tours at Tsechokling Airport or on Wechat.

The company has two routes — one over Lhasa and a chartered flight from Lhasa to Nam Co, the world’s highest saltwater lake, about one hour of flight time from Lhasa.

The tour in Lhasa costs 990 yuan ($151) per person, and a booking requires a minimum of two people. While the chartered flight to Nam Co costs 35,000 yuan per hour, with three to four passengers.

The company warned that passengers are not allowed to take cell phones or cameras on board.

Trola Mountain Tunnel Open

Trola Mountain is located in the Kanze (Garze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; it separates the Derge County from Kanze (Garze) County; It is 40 kilometers from Manigango, and 75 kilometers from Derge County; The journey from Manigango to Derge over Trola mountain pass usually takes 4 to 5 hours, among of which 2 hours is for driving over the Trola Mountain pass; the road is dirt road, and it was like this:
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And Now along with the use of Trola Mountain Tunnel, the time for getting to Derge has been largely and safely shorten, it will only take less than 3 hours from Manigango to Derge. This shall tremendously help visitors to visit in the west of Kham

Facts of Trola Mountain Tunnel:

• Trola tunnel Total length: 12.995 kilometers
• Tunnel length: 7.079 kilometers
• Connection part on both ends (total): 5.916 kilometers
• Tunnel width: 9 meters | Tunnel height: 5 meters;
• Two-way lane,
• Design speed of 40 kilometers per hour